Legendary PKMN: Viktory
by Cataclyptic
Summary: The third movie in the Legendary PKMN Saga. With Darkrai captured, Calestia vulnerable, and Anarchoass trolling basically EVERYONE, can these Legendaries-in-training join forces and defeat Blake Hall before he take over all of Almia? They'd better hope so- because Blake Hall, despite being powerful enough to destroy the Ranger Union, isn't even their real enemy...
1. I: The Final Mission

Movie Poster: art/Viktory-Movie-Poster-616253727

* * *

 **\- Part one: The Final Mission -**

* * *

It had been two days since Lugia died. They buried him at the island where Ho-oh and Lugia grew up, and told its location to no one. When Palkia contacted Arceus with the bad news, the divine legendary had specific instructions for them:

They are to report that Lugia had died of an unknown disease created by Cipher. They are not to mention what Lugia had nearly become, or of his relation to the destroyed Mossdeep. He was to be remembered as a hero, not the destroyer.

Everything for reputation after all.

It was, as Arceus put it, a necessary lie. Faith had to be in the Legendary Council to do good, and if anyone knew that one of their members had gone rogue or destroyed an entire city without mercy, that faith might be lost. In a time where Absolix was active and Kurades was revived, Arceus needed all the power she could get to stand a chance in the inevitable war.

Even Cresselia was to follow these orders. When she told the rest of Calestia, she lied about Lugia's affliction. She did not lie about him being a hero. She wept, and was comforted by her friends. Ho-oh and Palkia had vanished to hold a silent funeral for the black swan, who died still a monster.

Cresselia had been silent for twenty four hours, grieving over the loss of her idol and savior. During this time the other members of Calestia noticed some strange things going on. One, Darkrai never reported back on the status of the shadow crystal. Barlow, Elaine and Ollie were sent to investigate. The second was that Team Nova had disappeared completely. No one knew where they were. It was impossible to find out because of the third thing that was strange: there was no spatial network connecting them.

In other words, there was no way to communicate to Arceus. Worse, every phone call to there never went through. Mewtwo was off the map. In the span of twenty four hours, Calestia realized that they were alone.

But of course, that wasn't the end of it. No, there had to be one more piece of bad news: when Barlow and the others got back from their trip, they found that the entire Chroma Ruins had been destroyed by a great battle. The shadow crystal, as well as Darkrai and Victini, were nowhere in sight.

"How can that be!?" Gallade asked out loud when he heard the news "First Mewtwo, now Darkrai and Victini…!"

"And we can't contact Arceus…" said Malispite in a low voice "I don't like this…"

"Well it's clear what is happening." Mercifond provided some reason, "Someone is trying to isolate us and pick us off one by one."

"Well they've succeeded." Malispite grumbled "Question is, who and why?"

Silence. They all knew the answer to the first part: team Dim Sun. Despite being in Almia for over a month, they had yet to locate Dim Sun's base of operations or its leader. Sure, they had stopped a mission or two of theirs but it was painfully obvious that they were still out there, waiting to strike.

"So then…" Gallade brought up the elephant in the room "is it safe to assume that Darkrai's been captured, along with the other disappeared pokémon?"

"He would never-!" Gardevoir began, but stopped herself. Malispite shuffled his wings: he also thought that Darkrai wouldn't be captured. Even if he did, he'd spend all of his time trying to break out.

"But…" the white bat pointed out "what if… he was captured by mind control?"

Indeed, Mercifond had a point. Dim Sun had already been shown to wield advanced mind controlling technology; Gardevoir had been a subject of this. She remembered what it was like being under the influence: it was as if your mind was a blank slate, and any kind of command would make you move. Was it possible that Darkrai…?

"Cresselia's still out of it…" frowned Gallade, interrupting Gardevoir's train of thought. They weren't in a good position with their leader out of commission "Gliscor, why don't you go and cheer-"

Gallade stopped himself. He bowed his head in shame, for he was talking to empty air. With a depressed look in her eyes, Gardevoir realized that this was all they had left: just the four of them. Calestia had been reduced to half its size in the span of a month. Four members still on the team, one traumatized, one in another country, one missing and one gone rogue. The bleak emotion that was despair flickered in their eyes.

Then the video phone rang. There was a questioning look in Calestia's eyes because this was supposed to be a private room. Also, the phone was turned off; it was unplugged earlier to allow them complete silence.

There was a second pause as it rang again. Hesitantly, the chosen one walked over and answered it "H-Hello?" she asked hesitantly.

"Hey there hotstuff."

Mercifond slammed the phone on the receiver, then tore it from the wall and smashed it into smithereens with several light type attacks. Seeing her teammates looking at her in shock, the white bat clarified:

"It was him! You know, that annoying Anarch-whatever!" Mercifond growled, referring to the chaotic steel type. Malispite tensed up "did he hit on you again!?"

And then the phone rang again. Despite the phone being torn in half, the video screen into pieces and the various electronics smashed and crushed… it was still ringing.

This would have made for a nice horror plot had they not known who was calling.

"Well if he can do THAT…" Gallade pointed, "I suspect he'll keep calling us until we answer." Bravely, the fighting psychic picked up the phone and asked who it was.

"Hey there hotstuff." said Anarchaoss' voice on the other end.

"This is Gallade." the green psychic clarified.

"I know."

A pause.

"…um…"

"I come in peace." said the steely voice of Anarchaoss "I have good news! Kairi has done what is needed to be done! So now I'll give her back!"

A swirling portal opened up in space-time, and Kairi was flung out of it, landing with a thunk and yelling "Who's there, where am I!?" in a human language.

"Also it is very important that you remember what I say next, the fate of Almia will depend on it." Anarchaoss said in a serious voice to Gallade

"42."

He hung up.

* * *

Giga was afraid because last night while he was dreaming, Darkrai was not normal. Yes, the 10,000 year old deity could communicate with Darkrai while he slept, and what he saw wasn't good. Darkrai was dreaming, but that was it: there was nothing else, and the nothingness that had filled Darkrai's heart had scared him.

The great mountainous legendary stomped over to the rest of Neo Genesis and desperately tried to communicate his wishes.

"BRDRDRDRBDRDBDRDRDRDR!" spoke the white titan.

"Oh?" Salamantra frowned.

"BRDRDR. BRDRDRDRDRDRDR!"

"Is that right?" Brillareby asked.

"BRDRDRDRD RDRDRDRDBD RDRDR!"

"Uh, yeah, um, okay!" said Yumi.

"You all have no idea what he's saying do you?" the grey colored Inori pointed out. The others shook their head- Giga's strange language made no sense to them. Only Absolix was able to translate, and he was still in his room trying to perfect his 'ultimate move'. Giga began to get frustrated, when a spout of water came from one of the doors of the mansion. Mewthree clutched the bar of soap within her hands in a vicious manner.

"You will submit!" she slammed it on the ground furiously. The bar of soap did not get back up. Mewthree huffed, then regained her composure, dusting herself off "That's more like it."

"Did you do the toilet-sans yet?" Salamantra asked her at a distance.

"Yeah! We need those done asshole!" Yami yelled to Mewthree, while her brown partner apologized. The pink psycat narrowed her eyes "I'm about to. But that's beside the point- why do I even need to do the toilets!? Pokémon don't excrete waste!"

"Well that would obvious Mewthree-chan." replied the fire salamander, "Because Absolix needed something for you to clean."

Mewthree wanted to rip her own fur out, along with Absolix's skull "Are you seriously telling me… that the only reason he bought AND installed toilets into the mansion…"

"Was to train you, yes." Inori said in his wispy voice "Now unless you can understand this guy-" he pointed to Giga "- then get back to your training. We need all the members we can get."

"Or at the very least, shut up and be a good meat shield." snarked Yami.

"BRDRDRBRDRDRDRDR!" Giga was growing impatient, stomping on the ground and causing the whole ground to nearly collapse. Mewthree stared at him intently. Then, she smirked.

"He wants to get out of this city."

A pause. Slowly, many pairs of eyes turned to Mewthree. Yumi spoke first: "You can understand him?"

"BRDRDR!?"

"Yes." said Mewthree, realizing she had finally gained some leverage from the members of Neo Genesis. Finally, a shrivel of respect from the hardened crew of the world's most dangerous beings. She let the pride sink in.

"…Then please, translate." Inori left the floor to the psycat. Mewthree listened as the regigigas spoke to her in a booming voice filled with BR's and DR's and not much else. When he was done, Mewthree understood. She flicked her tail in enjoyment of the moment.

"He says that he thinks Darkrai is in danger." Mewthree relayed to the other members "He wants Inori to teleport him to Destiny City."

"Destiny…" Inori frowned. Salamantra, in his Japanese accent, told Giga that going to Destiny alone was far too dangerous. Especially since they would be risking their lives for an unimportant individual. With Mewthree as the translator, Giga explained that Darkrai was important to him. The dark type was one of the first pokémon to realize that Giga wasn't the monster everyone made him out to be- along with Absolix.

The rest of the members shuffled their feet. Truth be told, they were still a little afraid of Giga.

If Darkrai was in danger, explained Giga, then the ancient titan would do everything in his power to save him. They found this admirable, but raised an important question: how did Giga know where Darkrai was? He might still be in Almia for all they knew, and Almia was a large country. But before Giga could protest further, the main doors slammed open.

"What's all this about? A party without me?" it was Absolix, who was breathing heavily and covered bruises. He was shaking, and almost looked like he was about to collapse.

"Absolix-sama!" Salamantra rushed to his master's aid, catching him before he fell.

"What… happened to you!?" questioned the pink butterfly Brillareby. Absolix gave his usual mystifying smile. He told them all that he was perfecting his ultimate move. His grand design from many months of training would result in an attack so strong that it could take down Arceus in one hit. Unfortunately, he was failing at the execution.

"The tricky part is setting it up." added the fallen angel "But once it gets set up… then hypothetically, there will be no defense against it and it should take out literally any opponent, no matter who it may be. I'll get back to working on it in a moment, in the meantime I still need a name for it…"

"Ooh ooh me!" an excited blue cat popped out of nowhere and jumped up and down "Um, um! Ultimate, um, Light Attack! Of, of Destruction!"

"I'll think it over." smiled the fallen angel "Now then, what is all of this about?"

"BRDRDRDRDR!" Giga shouted. Absolix closed his mouth and contemplated. So, Darkrai was in danger was he?

"And you wish to help him?"

"BRDRDR."

"Then I refuse your request." Absolix smiled. Giga began to get angry, the other members could feel his power level rising and stepped back. Absolix remained as calm as ever. "Oh don't be like that, please hear me out.

Did I not tell you that I've made Darkrai my sworn enemy?"

The rest of Neo Genesis took this news with unfavorable reactions. Absolix was the strongest creature alive, so why on Earth would he take a no-named nobody as his sworn enemy?

"I have my reasons." shrugged the light type "Which brings me to my point: Giga, Darkrai is my sworn enemy. However if Darkrai can't sort out his petty problems by himself, then he has no right to be called as such."

Giga's power level started to drop down, a sign that he was less angry "I know that you care for him, but understand my wishes: whatever danger you believe him to be in, he must work it out himself. You too wish to fight him yes? How can he grow stronger if you save him time and time again?"

Giga's eyes flashed, signaling he was thinking "…BRDRDRDR. BRBRBRDRDRBR."

"I highly doubt the man I've chosen to be my sworn enemy would die so easily." answered Absolix. Mewthree gazed at the fallen angel- he was really taking this seriously. Then again, she partially knew why: The last time she saw Darkrai, he had resurrected himself from the dead and destroyed Xeno without even trying. Then, he even challenged Absolix to a battle and managed to not die somehow.

The man had admirable qualities, even if he was stupid and reckless. The rest of Neo Genesis silently believed that Absolix was mistaken, and when their 'climactic' final duel took place, their leader would be wallowing in disappointment. Mewthree… no longer knew what to think about the so called prince of darkness. Other than he was a role model for her own goal: to defeat Mewtwo.

Giga on the other hand, had finally made up his mind. He had decided that Absolix was correct, that his friend must grow stronger to stand a chance at beating Giga. Thus, the titan sat back down, he would stay in Neo Genesis. However, he wanted Inori to make a mini portal to Earth, locate Darkrai, and give Giga a visual just in case.

"That seems reasonable enough." smiled Absolix "Inori?"

"Give me some time to find him…" said the ghost type. Inori clasped his hands and began to work his interdimensional powers. Mewthree stood aside and was about to pick up the bar of soap but was stopped by Absolix.

"We need to talk. About… Xeno." said the fallen angel seriously, a fake smile plastered to fool the rest of Neo Genesis.

Mewthree viciously shook her hand away and levitated away with speed. She grabbed the bar of soap and flew into the quarters, stopping herself from vomiting. The pink psycat held it in and walked through the quarters. They had nothing to talk about- nothing!

Mewthree was fine. The sickness she felt in her stomach was just a painful memory. Xeno still loved her. He had to. He must.

He must.

If he didn't, then Mewthree knew she would break.

Absolix watched her trip a few times from a distance. Giovanni had done an incredibly good job at brainwashing his apprentice. Absolix sighed, and saw that he may have to do this the hard way.

"Absolix-sama, I am concerned with Mewthree-chan's mental state." Salamantra was next to him in a flash of red "I already know about Xeno-teme, and what he did… and what he means to her."

Absolix looked at him and the lizard continued "I believe she is unstable due to Giovanni-teme's actions. We should rectify this as soon as possible, or else Mewthree-san might never recover."

Absolix chuckled just a tiny bit, a new idea forming "Oh? That's strange, as I recall about four months ago you said she was just a useless pokémon who would be better off away."

Salamantra flinched at Absolix's teasing but he continued "No, no, I understand my friend: it isn't that you are concerned about her, it's just that you don't want unknown factors now that we are approaching the crucial moment… right?"

The fire lizard nodded his head a little too eagerly. Absolix thought for a bit.

"Well then perhaps you can do us both a favor." Absolix began to walk away "She needs to finish her training, and for psychic types the mind is everything. Perhaps you, the man who knows more than a thousand seals, could teach her patience and how to regain herself."

"Understood, Absolix-sama. I will do as you wish." bowed the fire type. Absolix waved his hand "Only if you wish." the fallen angel added. Salamantra followed Mewthree to her quarters. Absolix gave a smiled, wishing the best for the both of them. He went back to his own room, where all his other personalities were waiting for him.

"Let's continue."

* * *

"Kairi!" Mercifond hugged the human. The ranger was still dazed but she knew the embrace of relief, and so she held back. The rest of Calestia smiled warmly, Gallade and Gardevoir took their turns to hug their friend while Malispite hung back, simply smirking.

"Wait a minute-" Kairi became worried "Where's Ruby!?"

Another portal in space-time opened up and out fell Ruby the shiny gardevoir. A post-it note was taped to her head: _'_ _Whoops, almost forgot about her! Excelsior!'- Anarchaoss_

 _PS: At the edge of the universe there is a green slime thing. It wonders if it can have breakfast yet. Little does it no there IS NO edge to the universe!_

More hugs to Ruby this time, although suspiciously when she got to Gallade the girl refused to let go. With some persuasion they pried her off of him and set down to work.

"What happened in Oblivia!?" was the first question. Kairi took a deep breath and relayed her story. They didn't understand a word she said. Then she got a new Styler because her broken one couldn't interpret human to pokémon and retold it in an abridged fashion.

"Basically, a bunch of lame guys were working for more lame guys who used a super weapon because they were old and forgot things, so I killed a demonic stunfisk and won. Then Mary Tzu got pissed because I did that and attacked me, but I defeated her with my and Ruby's mind." Kairi breathed out. They stared at her.

"Can you explain that in a way that makes more sense?" Gallade raised his hand "Also, good job. I knew humans had brain powers."

"We don't have time for a more details!" Gardevoir suddenly said "Darkrai is in danger! And others too!" she finished.

The four of them explained the situation in Almia: how Team Dim Sun also used mind control, how they powered their devices with dark shards and the effects of the devices. They told Kairi about how there were three luminous crystals and one shadow crystal, which could neutralize each other. They had two, Blake Hall, their trusted companion had the third. The shadow crystal had been taken by Team Dim Sun's mysterious leader.

That was only the start of the bad news: Darkrai, Victini, Team Nova and Mewtwo were missing. Celebi had betrayed them and they had nearly lost their lives to Xeno, an abomination created by Team Rocket. Cresselia was a wreck thanks to Lugia dying, and communications with the Hall of Origin and the outside world in general seemed to have ceased.

"That's why we didn't call you." Mercifond said "No phones work…"

"We're short on friends then…" Kairi was finally brought up to speed "….there might be another person we can call. But that all depends on whether or not he shows up…"

Mitsurashi Zero, the most feared human in the world. His strength was legendary, and thanks to his co-training with Darkrai he was even stronger than when they fought him last. It wasn't a bad guess to say that Zero was the strongest among them right now, save maybe Malispite.

The problem was, Zero was a villain. Even now they had an uneasy truce with him. He showed up and defeated the mind controlled Gardevoir and Regice just because he was bored. All of them knew Zero would not act for the greater good… but he might act for the greater fun.

"I might be able to find a way." said Kairi. If only she knew where Zero was. A knock on the door got their attention. To their surprise, it wasn't one of the Rangers, but rather, Cresselia. She slowly levitated in with her head held low.

All of them held their breaths for Cresselia. They didn't know what she would do at this point; she had lost Lugia and her brother. Latios came in behind her, following at a distance. He was concerned for his girlfriend but did not speak.

She looked hollow, as if a light tap would simply break her apart. Maybe it would. She levitated to the center of the room. All was quiet. Her friends gazed silently at her. They would give her all the time she needed, until she was ready to speak. After five minutes of peaceful silence, Cresselia drew her breath.

"He's dead." she spoke in a low voice "He isn't coming back to me. Ever."

They watched "Lugia was my greatest hero, more than even my mom. He saved me from death- twice- and taught me so much in the few years I had known him.

I… he died a hero. He died trying to save his brother." Cresselia breathed.

Silence. Then "I'm scared. Zoroark is still out there and Lugia isn't… I've lost him and I want to curl up into a ball and cry. My weakness is making me feel sick inside…"

Malispite was about to protest that what Cresselia had wasn't even close to weakness, but his sister held him back. There was more.

"Despite this I have to keep going. My own little brother is out there somewhere, probably captured by Dim Sun. Pokémon are missing and it was my original duty to keep them safe. I failed in doing so. So now I will do that which Lugia always told me:

Never give up.

I may not be suitable to lead now… or even at all…" the lunar swan paused, reflecting upon herself "but I'm getting Darkrai back. I'm going to save this country. I will… I will prove myself to my mother. To Lugia. His death will not be in vain, where he fell I will take his place!"

She shouted that last part, then quieted down "I understand if you don't want to follow me any longer. Just please…. remain by my side. That is all I ask."

She was embraced by many bodies in all directions. Latios, who came in with her, gave her a quick peck on the cheek and held her after that. Surrounded by the warmth of her friends was enough to make tears come from her eyes.

"We are here to serve, my liege." smiled Gallade.

"Tell us what we need to do." Gardevoir was determined.

"I'll be here until you leave, and when you get back." reassured Latios.

"That was a beautiful speech." a new voice said. It was Lucario, picked up by the bat twins and now in the ranger base. Originally he was just going to hang out with his secret girlfriend, but Cresselia had made him change his mind. He was moved "I too, will do what I can."

"Everyone…" sniveled the lunar swan at their support "We're going to get them all back okay!? Darkrai, Mewtwo, Gliscor… everyone!"

Cheers erupted from Calestia. The once small room was now packed to the brim with friends, all whom had their spirits lifted. As tears of joy and sadness were passed from one creature to the next, an invisible face carefully peered into the room. It was a grey ghost, with a yellow antennae and a single red eye, observing the group.

Though he did not have a mouth, he smiled. The man nodded once, then vanished.

Finally, it was time.

* * *

Crawford, Luana, their new companion Ollie and Elaine sat in the ranger base waiting for Calestia's next move. As much as they hated to admit it, the two of them couldn't handle this whole mess alone.

Team Dim Sun had to have captured the shadow crystal. They also probably had Darkrai, the guy who took down Zero single handedly. No one knew where their base was, no one knew what they would do with such a grossly huge power.

As such, precautions had to be taken. Next to them were the two luminous crystals; when all three got together the shadow crystals power could be cancelled. The dark haired Luana was on the phone trying to get in contact with their friend Blake Hall, the one who had the last.

She was not having luck, each urgent call went straight to his automatic voice messenger.

 _'_ _We're sorry, but Mr. Hall is not available at the moment. Please hang up and try again later. Also, please note that Mr. Hall is definitely not a bad guy, and his newly constructed Altru Tower, opening soon, is most certainly not a giant mind control device. At all. Thank you'_

That was the fifth time the message played. They needed that last crystal badly. Also… how come all the phones didn't work except when calling Altru Tower? It was odd.

Luana pondered this and had no answer. She stared at Ollie and Elaine, flirting with each other as usual while laying out plans for a new invention. Their lovey-dovey happy attitude was getting irksome.

"Now is not the time for making out! Or worse!" shouted Luana at them. No, they were in an emergency situation and needed to be on guard. Anything could happen now.

Anything.

 ** _SLAM!_**

"TROUBLE!"

"AAGGHH!"

Professor Hastings barged into their building unexpectedly waving around old papers. Luna and Crawford were so shocked they attacked the professor with their Stylers and had him tied up with energy ropes.

"What was that?" they heard Kairi say. Hastings dusted himself off and began raving again as the rest of Calestia walked in. Crawford quickly turned on his Styler's communicator function to let the pokémon in on the conversation.

When Professor Hastings finally calmed down enough to speak, he bore horrible news: "There's trouble! Major trouble!"

"What is it professor?" Crawford shook the man up.

"Do you all remember that diary you found at the Chroma Ruins!?"

No one ever remembered finding any diaries.

"Well I've finally deciphered it!" the professor continued, "And what it says may spell our doom!"

"Professor… uh…" Cresselia began "We… we never found anything like that at the Chroma ruins…"

The white haired man widened his eyes, looking at the torn diary in his hands "Then if you didn't find it… how did I get this…?" he questioned. There were a couple blinks before everyone realized the truth: the diary was horribly written plot device.

"…read it…" sighed most of Calestia, used to these by now. The professor flipped open the diary, where they saw the first piece of information: its author.

"It was written by Brighton Hall." frowned Hastings. Crawford and Luana realized that this was Blake Hall's father. Hasting's continued:

 _"_ _July third, year 20XX. I hate using letters instead of numbers to write the dates. As previously written, the hole that my father found contains a path to a previously undiscovered ruins. I will investigate this._

 _July tenth, year 20XX. The immense cavern discovered was filled with dark shards- crystals that have absorbed negative emotions and now contain power. These glowing rocks may be key to unlocking humanities future._

 _July twelfth, year 20XX. After playing Final Fantasy and researching Green Lantern comics, I have concluded that these dark shards can be used for good. Therefore I am having my son, Blake, ingest twenty of the smaller rocks per day. From what I have gathered, he will one day become a superhero. Yay!_

Everyone had their jaws open.

 _"_ _January fifth, year 20XY. More good news, I have discovered that there is a gigantic dark shard in the cavern, named the shadow crystal. It was filled with ancient warnings not to go near it or else your soul would be corrupted. Naturally I sent Blake Hall down there in the dark alone with the crystal, since after a year he has shown no signs of superpowers. Maybe the shadow crystal will stir something in him. I'll let him out in a couple of days._

 _March twenty eighth, year 20XY. Shit! I forgot my son was still inside the cavern! I'M COMING!_

 _March thirty first, year 20XY. Good news, Blake was fine. He seems to be a little emo and rants about world domination, but that just means he's developing superpowers, or at least superhuman abilities. Also my wife left me after leaving my son in there for a couple months. So tonight, I'm hiring some hookers. Peace out!"_

"This man is a horrible father…!" Gallade finally blurted out. Everyone agreed with him. Hasting's continued:

 _"_ _March thirty third year 20xxxxxxxx im so drinkrite now I had a beer and then a vokda and then another ber and then another and thernnnnn annnd then im happy gbye"_

"Wait, what did that have to do this situation?" questioned Mercifond.

"Nothing, I just found that part funny." Hastings snickered, "HERE is the part you must pay attention to…"

 _"_ _December 31, year 20XY. I think I have made a terrible mistake. It seems as though all of the dark shards and exposure to the shadow crystal has turned Blake evil. Who would have thought? He is now making plans to kill me in my sleep. He's already slashed two of my hookers. Don't know what to do._

 _January 9, year 20XYZ. I tried getting Blake into therapy. Didn't work._

 _February 18, year 20XYZ. I have a foolproof plan! I will turn Blake over to the company as its new CEO. With all of the responsibility on his shoulders, he should be able to wizen up and turn into a respectable authority figure, free from evil._

 _February 19, year 20XYZ. He kicked me out and now plans to use my Altru incorporated to rule the world! Who could have imagined!? Please, someone stop Blake Hall! And if anyone has a luminous crystal, never ever give it to him!"_

"The diary stops there." Hastings closed his eyes "And now you see what we're up against…"

"Horrible parenting?" someone asked.

"Yes. But also Blake Hall. He has taken a luminous crystal and the shadow crystal. It is unknown what he'll do with it…"

"What if he had a giant mind control device?" suggested Elaine the mechanic, "Like the Gigaremo's™ we found, except bigger?"

"The shadow crystal's power is immense." Hastings frowned "In order to contain that much negative energy, it would have to be in a container approximately the size of a tall building."

There was a pause as his words sunk in. Tomorrow, Altru Inc. © would celebrate its fiftieth anniversary by finally completing Altru Tower, the symbol of peace and goodwill. Also it was a really tall building. Blueprints in it revealed a shadow crystal sized hole where one would normally put in a generator.

"He's going to use Altru Tower© as a giant conduit for his mind control technology!" screamed Hastings "Right under our noses too! With that thing, he could easily bring all of Almia under his spell!"

"And after that, he could take over the neighboring regions with ease!" said Anarchaoss, "He has to be stopped!"

A pause in the room.

"Wait… who are you?" asked the afro'd Crawford.

"I am Anarchaoss." explained the steel type "All yor base are belong to me probably.

"OH SH*T NOT THIS GUY!" the entirety of Calestia screamed. Quickly all available members tried to beat up the guy, but Anarchaoss dodged all their attacks with his multiple joined limbs, laughing and shouting random words.

"I just remembered how I got the diary." said the professor, "HE gave it to me."

"…HE gave that to you?" said Cresselia suspiciously. The steel type merely grinned. Cresselia looked at him again "What are you doing here? Why are you helping us?"

"PART SIX."

And then he teleported away.

"…what the hell!? Part six!? What does that even mean?" Mercifond, as well as the others, were continually frustrated at Anarchaoss's cryptic messages and general random demeanor. On the other hand, they hardly hide time to worry about what he was planning- they had a tower to invade.

Cresselia, wasting no time, told them that Calestia was going to storm the building immediately and catch them by surprise. However, Kairi pointed out that this would be a horrible idea: because if Blake Hall activated the tower, or even a couple Gigaremos™, then the members of Calestia would be helpless.

"We can't just send pokémon to fight a guy whose power is that he can control them…" Kairi had a point. Ruby agreed- it would be like if she decided to fight a water type in the ocean. The odds would be so stacked against her that there would be no way to win.

"Ruby you're not…" Gallade began, but stopped himself "Okay yes I see your point. But we can't stay here and do nothing! We need a way to fight!"

"Gallade has a point, the clock is ticking." Cresselia thought carefully "When should the tower become active?"

"If their flyer is of any indication…" said Crawford, reading that it would be activated at midnight "Then 12:00 tonight. Until then they'll probably need to wire it in or something."

With the deadline appearing to be midnight, they still had around 11 hours to stop Blake. Yet the question remained: how would Calestia, their most powerful unit, operate under conditions that would brainwash them?

As everyone thought of a solution, there was a sudden rumbling in the air. As if a mini earthquake had passed through, everyone and everything was shaken for a split second before it was over.

"What… was that?" asked Brighton Hall fearfully.

"I think that was a test run…!" Malispite deduced "Anyone else suddenly feel the need to not fight Blake anymore?"

All the pokémon in the room raised their hand. Hastings realized what was going on "They're mocking us… this test run was just to prove to us our utter helplessness! Dim Sun thinks we have no way to win!"

* * *

 **MEANWHILE IN ALTRU TOWER ©**

"Dude, what are you doing!?" Ice asked Lavanna, who had accidentally turned on the Altru tower, which was still incomplete.

"Sorry!" the pink haired woman held her hands up. She pointed to a giant red button "I thought this was the button to make coffee!"

"No, THAT'S the button to make coffee!" said Ice, pointing to an identical giant red button right next to original. At this, Lavanna frowned.

"Seriously? Who made the buttons the exact same and put them next to each other!?"

"IT WAS MEEEEEEEEEEE!" said a new figure, Mr. Kincaid of team Dim Sun. He had survived the boat and barely managed to get away back to the base "I did that to be EVILLL!"

"We get it. You're evil. Go bug someone else." muttered the blue haired man.

"Okay then! Off to Blake Hall I go!"

* * *

"Those bastards are underestimating us!" growled Malispite. Gardevoir nodded her head- they would find a way to stop team Dim Sun no matter what. The question was: how?

"Aha!" said Hastings, "I can help somewhat!" the male professor produced a slightly glowing yellow crystal from his pocket "Look here! This is a luminous crystal shard, just like the dark shards used to power Gigaremo's™! Wear these, and you'll be immune to the shadow crystal's effects!"

"Awesome! How many of those do you have?" asked Kairi.

"I only have one…" cried Hastings, realizing "It took me weeks to store up enough happiness in this crystal to make it work…"

"That's… a problem…" Gardevoir said quietly "Now what do we do…?"

"You leave that… to us." said Elaine, holding her boyfriend Ollie's hand "We'll make more crystal shards for you all to wear."

"How?" questioned everyone. Ollie and Elaine explained that they had arrived at a conclusion: crystals that could absorb emotions could absorb any sort of emotion in their basal state. They figured that if they harvested enough dark shards and were extraordinarily happy around them, that they would turn into luminous shards instead.

Sure enough, their hypothesis was correct. They reached into their bedroom, and pulled out three sparkling luminous shards.

"Whoa!" Luana was mesmerized "But, how did you make that many in such a short time!?"

"We put the dark shards beside our bed and had sex a lot."

"YOU DID WHAT!?" Kairi and a few others flushed. The pokémon were confused.

"Hey, it's called 'making love' for a reason." Ollie was offended, squeezing his girlfriend's hand "…the point is, we now have three luminous shards, and we can make more before it's go time."

"Give or take." Elaine smiled lustfully.

Hastings felt a sweatdrop go down his face "Well… Erhem! I suppose that can work. Although I should warn you, Calestia, that though these emotions are positive, they will still convey the emotion most used when the crystal formed.

So if any of you feel super horny after wearing them, that would be the reason why."

"Alright…" Cresselia blushed "Well… okay then. Calestia! We wait some more time until we have enough shards for all of us… even you, Lucario." she nodded in his direction and he returned the gesture "The plan we have is simple: we invade the tower with everything we've got. We cause as much havoc as possible, damage the tower to make it unoperational, and search for Darkrai, wherever he may be…"

Cresselia cleared her throat "I have spoken to Deoxys already, but it is best for her to remain here and find Mewtwo, just in case. If she finds Mewtwo or cannot find him in a reasonable time, she'll go to the tower and assist us. Considering her vast shape shifting abilities, we could have an edge at infiltration.

I still don't know where Team Nova and Victini are, but they can handle themselves I'm sure. Lucario, please stay here and defend the base against a sneak attack. So on that note, we will raid Blake Hall's masterpiece soon enough!"

"We shall call it: Operation Brighton!" said Hastings enthusiastically. Everyone stared at him.

"Why should we name it after the guy who caused this horrible mess in the first place?"

"Uh… I was actually going for a pun of 'Brighten'… but good point. Well then what should the operation be called?" the professor wondered. Everyone began to think for a moment.

"Well since we're going with puns… how about 'Viktory'?" Lucario wondered.

 **TITLE DROP!**

As much as they hated to use a phrase created by the author, they couldn't come up with anything better. So Viktory it was.

Cresselia spoke up "Then in a couple hours we shall execute Operation: Viktory! And nothing will stop us!"

The humans cheered, but the pokémon of Calestia sighed with annoyance and swayed their heads in disappointment. The mood turned sullen.

"What?" asked Hastings "What's wrong?"

"Wait for it." Mercifond simply mumbled.

Sure enough, the video screen pulled up beside them where a scene of carnage and a bloodied ranger met them: "THE RANGER HEADQUARTERS IS UNDER ATTACK!"

Everyone turned their gaze at Cresselia, who smiled sheepishly.


	2. II: Altruism

**\- Part two: Altruism -**

* * *

Deoxys had finally given up searching for Mewtwo. Wherever he was, the girl was at least confident he could handle himself. Well, that's what she told herself anyhow. The psycat had been acting strangely as of late, and had even insisted that he remain away from them because he "might kill Gardevoir".

As much as Deoxys hated to admit it, Calestia's mission in Almia was of more pressing an issue since they were down so many members. The alien would have to devote her attention there, since if Mewtwo didn't want to be located then there was no way she could find him. However, she would be there when he was back. And then without interruptions, tell him how she felt.

She saw the ranger base and flew to the ground. It was funny- Deoxys realized then and there that she wasn't a member of Calestia. She would have to ask for membership.

When entered the Vientown ranger base, she saw that it was filled with panicking rangers and pokémon. When Deoxys asked what had happened, that only caused them to snap further. So instead, she decided to listen.

"IT'S UNDER ATTACK!?" cried Crawford through the transmitter "HOW MANY!? WHAT IS THIER POWER LEVELS!?

 _"_ _OVER NINE THOUSAAANNNDDDD!"_

"SH*T THERE OVER NINE THOUSAND!" Crawford gaped so much he misspelled a word.

"WHAT THE CRAP DO WE DO!?" shouted all of the ranger's pokémon at once.

"EVERYONE CALM DOWN!" Kairi shouted, trying to remain cool.

"WHAT'S GOING ON!?" yelled Hastings.

"PUT IN YOR DAMN HEARING AID!"

"WHAT!?"

"PUT IN YOR- NEVERMIND!"

"WHAT!?"

"WHY ARE WE ALL TALKING IN ALL CAPS!?" wondered Gallade dramatically.

"THE CAPS LOCK BROKE AGAIN!" said Mercifond in a loud voice. Indeed it had, the shock from the Ranger base being under attack had caused the caps lock to become broken.

"Uh…" Deoxys wondered. All eyes were on her.

"DEOXYS! YOU CAN SPEAK NORMALLY!?"

"I… guess so?"

"MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE SHE'S AN ALIE- I MEAN UH, BECAUSE SHE'S AN IVYSAUR." Malispite quickly corrected himself, "ANYWAY WE NEED TO GET THIS FIXED. IT'S JUST STUPID AT THIS POINT. NOT THAT IT WAS EVER SMART I GUESS."

"DON'T WORRY!" said Elaine "I PREPARED AN ANTI CAPS LOCK MACHINE JUST FOR THIS OCCASION."

Elaine activated a strange looking device, which emitted anti-caps lock energy (Because in shounen, EVERYTHING is an energy source.) which snapped everyone back to normal.

"There we go!" Luana smiled, happy to be rid of the annoying affliction.

"WHAT!?" Hastings yelled.

"We fixed the broken caps lock! Joke's over!" Kairi yelled in Hastings' ear. The professor finally got it. Now, everyone was finally settled down and picking up where they left off.

"Good thing we had that problem solved." Cresselia breathed easy "But what got us freaked out in the first place? I can't remember after all that screaming…"

"I think it was drastic… something to do with team Dim Sun… I think they were attacking someth-"

Everyone remembered all at once "THE RANGER BASE IS UNDER ATTACK!"

"WHAT!?" asked Hastings. Elaine went over to repair his hearing aid while Deoxys was quickly told the situation at hand: that the Ranger Union, the headquarters of Pokémon Rangers worldwide, was under attack, probably by Dim Sun.

"So the solution is obvious- Calestia! Move out!" commanded the fearless pink swan. However, all the humans blocked their path to the door.

"Think!" Kairi raised her voice, "Dim Sun has a device that can mind control pokémon and your plan is just go attack them back?!"

"Yes." said Malispite confidently.

Kairi sighed "You'd be mind controlled!"

"OHHH…" Calestia widened their eyes. The girl had a point- if they showed up there and were taken, it would be game over since Dim Sun probably had Darkrai. Cresselia still protested- what were they supposed to do, wait? Until what?

"Until we make more of these." Ollie the human showed them some luminous crystals created by super happy thoughts during sex "And no, if we want Operation Brighton to succeed, you can't use these now. They only last for about an hour…"

"Aha! I know!" said Ruby happily, "This looks like a job for the top ranger in the universe- Kairi!"

Kairi nodded her head. It would be difficult, but she would have to take them alone, since this was above and beyond the capabilities of the other rangers. Ruby protested of course, but Kairi could not risk Ruby being controlled. Besides, they might have more advanced technology this time…

"Wait, no…" Deoxys narrowed her eyes "Kairi, we can partner up temporarily, since I'm immune to their mind control."

"How?" questioned the scientific Hastings "We've tested the Gigaremo's™ and they are effective on every single species! Unless you happen to be from another planet, it's impossible."

A bead of sweat dripped down Deoxys' face, or it would have if her species had sweat glands. She knew there was only one way to convince them. The others looks at her, and she merely nodded back. Deoxys had been planning to do this sooner or later and now seemed like the appropriate time.

The chips were down, Dim Sun had made its move and half of Calestia- not to mention Mewtwo- were gone. So now that help was the utmost priority and immunity to Dim Sun's mind control had become a precious ability, Deoxys decided then and there to make her move. For the sake of Earth-Ribos friendship, she took a risk.

Deoxys removed her white moustache. It took a minute, but eventually their faces became alight with fear when they realized the mask was off.

"…it can't be…!" Crawford gasped, pointing at her, immediately recognizing her alien figure.

"You…! All this time you were…!" Luana's buneary widened her eyes, backing away in fear.

"I'm from Ribos. An alien." spoke Deoxys in a clear tone "Their mind control doesn't work on me because I'm built a little different than all of you."

This did not soothe them "B-Buneary! Use Jump Kick quickly!" Luana commanded her normal type. Before the move was even started, all of Calestia stood in her way. The buneary knew she had no chance, and backed off quickly.

"She's our friend." Cresselia said plainly to the humans and pokémon.

"I know you all aren't old enough to remember the things they've done to us…" Hastings became angry, "But being friends with… with their kind is an impossibility!"

"Good." grinned Malispite "We of Calestia specialize in doing impossible things." he got a nod from his sister.

Kairi spoke to them "She's trying to make peace between us. We trust Deoxys with our lives, and she would do the same for us."

It was completely unbelievable. An enemy, an alien, was friends with their support group. However, they all saw the bond between the group in their eyes and recognized it was genuine. The tensions lessened just a bit.

"Hmph…" Hastings mumbled, still eyeing her suspiciously "Never in my day…"

"If you still don't trust me, that's fine." said Deoxys, "But Kairi is my friend, and I can help her. So I'm going to watch her back while she does this."

The two women grinned at each other, despite one not having a mouth. They were not met with approval but at the very least no one stopped them. None of them could believe Deoxys was truly a comrade in arms, yet Kairi appeared to trust her well enough, plus they had no other options.

The rangers and their partner pokémon reluctantly agreed to trust Deoxys for the time being, after seeing a puppet show by Ruby explaining all the adventures Deoxys did with them, and how she helped. To Kairi, Deoxys told them that if she flew there with her psychic powers they would arrive in a few minutes. The brown haired ranger grabbed the last of her gear and announced that she was ready.

Deoxys morphed her body, losing her ear-like appendages and gaining a long elongated back head. Her arms turned into rods, while the rest of her body became more streamline. She looked like Cytosine- a ribonian known for his speed. Appropriately, Deoxys had named this her 'Speed forme'.

"Come on, Kairi." Kairi jumped on Deoxys' back, and she zoomed away in the blink of an eye. The Rangers merely nodded in their direction.

"To think one of them is on our side…" Crawford muttered before going back to work.

"Hm." Hastings, who lived through the various attacks Ribos did on them, had mixed feelings about this new partnership. Also… "That transformation ability… it's eerily reminiscent of their queen, Helix. Supposedly, Helix can alter her DNA according to her needs, giving her vast shape shifting abilities."

Gallade looked at Malispite and whispered "Do we tell them she's Helix's daughter?" Malispite told him that was a 'no', since they barely believed she was on their side. Cresselia nodded in their direction, agreeing. She saw Elaine and Ollie sneaking off to go make more luminous crystals. The swan turned to her group: "Until then, we wait!"

"Uh, I just realized this but…" Malispite raised a hand "Where's Meloetta? And those three deers I guess?"

"Oh… they already took off." Crawford told Malispite "I mean, they were headed for Unova remember? While you all were getting the crystals, the four of them headed out."

"…oh…" Malispite looked sad for some reason.

"Won't they just get lost again?" pointed out Gardevoir. Crawford replied that Barlow had given them a ride directly to the Unovan ports personally "But they'd still find a way."

"Yes, we became aware." Luana said, "Which is why… we gave them a present."

* * *

The three muskadeers stared downwards on a desk. On this desk, rocking with the waves, was a strange square like device and four yellow dots on a green screen. They read "C", "T", "V", and "M" respectively.

They looked at Meloetta, who was sitting away from them, sighing a lot for some reason. Their eyes turned back to the machine, which showed that the "M" icon was a little bit further away than the other three.

"What did they say this was?" asked Virizion.

"A… GPS…" said Terrakion "Global Positioning System."

"And it just locates all of us wherever we are…?" Cobalion finished.

There was a brief pause before "THIS IS F***KING AMAZING! HUMANS ARE ARCEUSDAMN WIZARDS!"

* * *

"Oh, that's great!" smiled Cresselia, "Soon they'll be over in Unova without hassle!"

"Yeah…" grumbled the brown bat.

"The farthest country away from Sinnoh, not to mention any other region!"

"Yeah…" grumbled the brown bat.

"I'd like to chat with her sometime, but it would be impossible since she's too far away!"

"Hmph! I'm leaving!" Malispite was angry for some reason and left to relieve himself of stress. As for the rest of Calestia, they had to wait until the appropriate time to strike Altru Tower™. Crawford and his budew had volunteered to infiltrate Altru Tower™ and see what he could find. Luana and her buneary were to monitor the base and all transmissions.

With that, all Calestia had to do was wait.

"So on that note, I'm going after boyfriend!" Cresselia grinned like mad and tried to find Latios. Lucario, who had been silent most of this time, quietly motioned to Mercifond. The white bat made a terribly unbelievable excuse to be alone with Lucario, and so she went.

All that remained were Gallade, Ruby and Gardevoir. A silence fell in between the three as they sat in a comfy couch, waiting. Gallade was in between Ruby and Gardevoir, silently meditating, trying to remember how he was able to mega evolve.

* * *

Deoxys' super speed allowed them to get to the ranger base- previously five kilometers away- in no time at all. The base was indeed under attack, as there was some smoke and fire, as well as conspicuous holes in the structure. The two formulated a quick plan:

"Deoxys! You go on top and work your way down, I'll start here and work my way up!" Kairi told her. Deoxys nodded and switched to another forme- three spikes protruded from her head and her arms became four vicious looking whips- her Attack forme. She flew upwards while Kairi ran inwards.

Deoxys met some grunts trying to set up a Gigaremo ™ on the roof, to which she quickly eliminated them and sliced the machine in half. Working her way down, she arrived at the second highest floor, the communications room, where Chairperson Erma as well as some workers were being held hostage.

The perpetrator was a yellow haired man who was big all over. He talked with a foreign accent as he commanded Erma to give him the two giant luminous crystals that they had. Backing this man up was a tough looking steelix, who glared at them all menacingly.

"Hey!" Deoxys yelled in pokespeak. The two villains turned around. Heath frowned, "Steelix! You will be taking care of that! Iron Tail!"

"With pleasure, master…" said the mind controlled steel type in pokespeak. It quickly raised its massive tail and slammed it in Deoxy's direction. Knowing that this thing had enough power to destroy the base, Deoxys swooped down and blocked the blow by quickly switching to Defense forme, in which she looked like Adenine. This caught the pokémon off guard, and in a quick motion changed back to Attack forme.

With her massively increased power, she performed a Superpower on the Steelix, which caused it to blow back into the opposite wall and crush it, then fall down the ground outside the base landing with an extremely loud 'THUD'. It did not get back up.

Deoxys widened her eyes "Oops! I'm still new to this… put a little more power than I should have…"

Heath and the others were dumbfounded that a Steelix, which the other rangers couldn't even take down combined, was just KOed in one blow. The desert man quickly fled the area, but Deoxys used her psychic powers to block the door. Then, using a simple Wrap move, she generated two extra arms and wrapped them around Heath, making sure he couldn't escape.

Deoxys turned to the humans and tried to speak in English: "No worry! I saved you all now don't sad!"

They got the message even though her English was flawed, and her vocal slits made a strange hissing noise with each word. What surprised them though, was the fact that this was a ribonian who saved them. That was literally the last thing they expected to come save them, but for now they were too grateful to be saved to care who did it.

"Kairi down coming up." the alien tried to say, "I hold the bad guy for a while."

Erma nodded her head once. The strange circumstances would have to wait for an explanation- for now she had to give orders. The operators went back online for damage calculations and phoning in aid wherever possible. Several previously captured rangers quickly brought out their hyper potions and full restores to revitalize their partners.

Some guarded the entrance while others ran back downstairs to join the fight, while on below Kairi made her way up.

The brunette thought that either she was getting stronger or the bad guys were getting weaker, since she was positively zipping through the floors. Even though there weren't too many Dim Sun goons, they all held pretty tough pokémon. Yet the speed at which she defeated them and their Gigaremo's™ was unbelievable.

Then again, she had the kid genius Nema and Lucario to thank for a lot of it.

* * *

 _Flashback: six days ago_

 _"Your poison Styler broke?" questioned the small mechanic. Kairi handed her the poison Styler, which had been crushed by Mary Tzu into tiny pieces. Sadly, Nema declared that her Styler was beyond repair after a few minutes with it. Asking if she had any backup Stylers, Kairi replied that she did- the fire one that Rand loaned her, but it was comparatively weak._

 _Nema then had the brilliant idea to use parts from the two Stylers to make an even better Styler. With Kairi's permission, the scientist got to work on a tougher and faster piece of technology worthy of Kairi's super mode. Within but a single day the blue haired girl presented Kairi with a new Styler._

 _"It's twice as fast as your old poison one, with about, um, three times the toughness. Also the shield radius has been increased by twenty percent!" said the blue haired girl happily "But we really need to do something about this move chip, Ember won't do for the girl who saved Oblivia, right?"_

 _"Can… can you even do that?" questioned the brown haired ranger. Making the move chip was much harder than creating a Styler. After all, the things had only been around for the last five years or so and creating them wasn't exactly common knowledge._

 _"Sure! I just need some move data." replied Nema happily, convinced that she could "So get a pokémon to show me its move a million times and I'll have enough data to copy it! Probably! And hopefully it won't blow up!"_

 _"Alright, I understand, now which move should I… wait what was that last part!?"_

 _"Since you have a psychic type partner, you should chose a move that suits psychic for type coverage." smiled the scientist "So… a fighting type move! Or maybe a fairy type!"_

 _"I doubt anyone knows fairy moves…" Kairi was thinking that she would have to get one of her friends "Maybe a defensive attack like Cresselia's Moonlight? Or go all-out offensive with Gallade's Close Combat?"_

 _However it was then that she remembered her friends were an entire continent away. Kairi could not use them until she got back to Almia. Plus, Nema explained that Gallade's Close Combat attack would not work since Styler was a machine: Being that it was far less durable than the body of a strong pokémon, it was certain that the Styler would break after performing the move._

 _"It's why no one ever uses Draco Meteor despite it being an awesome attack." explained Nema further, "No moves with drawbacks, the Styler can't take it."_

 _They were brainstorming a list: There were a few pokémon Kairi could call on. The metagross she saved actually made the power plant its home, so Meteor Mash was an option. Likewise, the evil Dr. Alakazam could give her a Shadow Ball. As Elaine and Kairi tried to figure out a right attack, a shadow approached them._

 _"Luc. Lucario luc." said a black and blue jackal that appeared next to them. Kairi quickly turned on a communicator "Repeat that?"_

 _"I said that Shadow Ball would be a bad choice." stated Lucario._

 _"Oh yeah?" Kairi's raised eyebrow._

 _"I have witnessed your strength firsthand, and it would be a waste to teach your machine such a move. No, you deserve better." the jackal further explained._

 _Kairi's attention was caught "What's your idea?"_

 _Lucario summoned a ball of aura within his palm "An attack that very few are able to master because it's such a powerful move. An attack that deals high damage with an effect of homing in onto the opponent. The perfect fighting type move."_

 _"Aura Sphere!?" Nema's eyes widened "They… no one's ever tried that before… like he said, too few users and never enough data."_

 _"I'd be willing to help Kairi if she believes she's worthy." smiled the blue fighting type "The real question is, are you?"_

 _Kairi grinned back "As a proud member of Calestia, and in the place of Darkrai who's missing: bring it on."_

 _Lucario grinned "What do I need to do?"_

 _The next day, Lucario found himself covered head to toe in wires and sensory equipment, so much so that he looked like a mechanical mummy with a small slit for eyes. The man couldn't even move._

 _"I instantly regret this."_

* * *

 _End Flashback_

Despite the blue jackal regretting it, he allowed Nema to copy his Aura Sphere data with her various machines. It took almost the entire day of constant Aura Sphering from Lucario as well as some major explosions, but eventually Nema succeeded. Good thing too, Lucario explained that he had to head over to his second job almost immediately afterward.

Like all Moves used by Stylers, it was weaker than the original version by about half and could not be boosted by adding more EP since Kairi was a human. Despite this, an Aura Sphere was still an Aura Sphere. Compared to the Poison Sting and Ember she once used, they were nothing next to her new Styler's move.

"Aura Sphere!" Kairi didn't need to yell the attack for it to work, but she was giddy enough to try it. As soon as the Styler read her thoughts, a blue sphere of fighting energy launched from her Styler and homed in on the nearest Dim Sun Grunt, knowing out both him and his mind controlled pokémon.

Seeing others surrounding her, she attacked again with her new move. Her next Aura Sphere was aimed at a grunt's Rhydon, who used Dig to dodge this attack. However, Kairi's Aura Sphere then aimed itself right at the grunt himself, making his machine busted.

Not only was this attack strong, but it had the ability to instantly home in on whatever target Kairi wanted to when she launched it. In addition, she could control the trajectory even after it was launched; the same why she controlled her rainbow colored Styler. She was capable of launching five at a time to disable the grunts while her Styler was able to free the minds of all the pokémon.

Lucario was right. This move was perfect for her. Aura Sphere was awesome.

"Aura Sphere!" she yelled again, knocking out a Chimecho with one hit, then bouncing off of that to destroy another Gigaremo. Within mere minutes, she had cleared floor two and the grunts were begging her not to harm them.

The ranger made quick work of them, putting them in some secured rooms then destroying the control pad to lock them in the makeshift jail cell. Kairi journeyed upward. There, she saw more grunts and disposed of them in a flash with her surprise attack. A voice chuckled from somewhere.

"So, you're Kairi?" a blue haired man stepped out of the shadows "The one who helped capture the infamous Zero?"

"I am." Kairi said suspiciously "…you seem familiar."

"Ice." the man introduced himself "I was once in the same class as Zero, as was Lavanna. We've met once or twice."

"I don't remember you." Kairi kept her guard up.

"That's because everyone only remembers him." Ice snarled, his face suddenly angry "We always stood in the shadow of Zero. None of us had the chance to make a name for ourselves."

Kairi narrowed her eyes "Then joining Dim Sun was…!?"

"Just a way to get revenge on him." Ice smiled "I was always the superior ranger, you see, but Zero has a mysterious ability that lets him exceed what is humanly possible!"

"That's not…"

"The eye?" Ice rolled his eyes "Surely you've seen his purple eye?"

Kairi remained silent. It was known to the ones who had seen Zero get serious that he sometimes gained a glowing purple eye, which somehow caused his abilities to increase. It wasn't until recently did Kairi realize exactly what that eye meant.

 _"_ _Kairi…Zero is the reincarnation of the White Knight!"_

The True Man could not lie, so his judgment was final. The girl was still trying to cope with this fact.

"Ah, so you have seen it. Whatever the hell it is, I can beat it now." said Ice dangerously. Suddenly, and unlike all the other members of team Dim Sun, the man in blue pulled out a Styler and sent it into the air. While this happened, a garchomp suddenly burst through the ceiling and landed next to him.

"You'll be a nice warm up. And who knows? Maybe if I hurt you a bit, I can draw him out of hiding…"

"Implying you can win." Kairi gave him a cocky smiled "Fine, let's do this!"

Ice, his garchomp and his ice type Styler surged towards Kairi, shattering windows in the process. Kairi was unaltered and took her Styler to level two- the Super Styler mode. Her line became rainbow colored and increased in power as the garchomp loomed over her with a Dragon Claw ready to slice her.

The girl formed a shield and blocked the attack while simultaneously looping around the beast. Unfortunately, it was then that Ice saw fir to intervene- he launched a Frost Breath attack from his Styler which she just barely dodged, only to have the garchomp back on her.

Kairi launched an Aura Sphere at point blank range and caused the dragon to recoil in pain. She then launched another one directly at Ice, who was able to call back his Styler and block the attack.

"Garchomp… Earthquake!" he shouted. Kairi's eyes widened- they were on the third floor, and even a simple Earthquake would tear the building apart. By the time the brunette processed this, the attack had already begun and cracks appeared on the floor.

The ranger thought quickly and deduced that Ice would never allow himself to fall, so she ran towards him with all her speed knowing that beside him would be the safest place. Ice of course tried to block her but she closed in on the safe zone-

\- only to be kicked in the guts by the man.

Kairi gasped for breath and retaliated with an Aura Sphere, to which the man easily dodged.

"What? You thought getting close to me was a good idea?" he mocked. Kairi backed up while shielding herself, only to realize one more step back was a giant hole where the hallway used to be. The edges crumbled ominously.

The garchomp was on the opposite side of the hole, but for the Mach pokémon this wasn't a problem. It zoomed at Kairi with a Dragon Rush attack, the brunette barely had time to put up a shield to block the powerful move, which knocked her back directly into Ice.

The blue haired man punched her again. Enraged, the girl launched Aura Spheres in every direction to cause confusion, but Ice saw through her and trailed his Styler right to where her weak point was: the bottom of her feet.

"Frost Breath." Kairi was stricken with a painfully bitter cold. Primal instincts took over; she knelt to the ground and covered herself up to try and get warm, dropping her Styler in the process. She immediately realized her mistake and used her Styler's super speed to create a barrier all around herself, just in time to block a Dragon Claw and yet another Frost Breath.

"Oh, this is cute." Ice grinned "Go on, keep up the barrier. Garchomp! Use Brick Break!"

That attack would have instantly broken Kairi's shield, if not for the fact that a second person arrived and announced for Ice to retreat. It was Lavanna, who looked bruised and battered. She was trying to drag an even more weary Heath to a helicopter.

"What!?" Ice asked in confusion.

"The mission is a failure! There's a monster in this building, it defeated a Steelix in one hit!"shouted the pink haired dark ranger. Ice widened his eyes.

"I have her distracted but it'll only be for a minute! We have to leave now!"

"Distracted!?" Kairi wondered aloud.

* * *

 **MEANWHILE WITH DEOXYS**

"Ooh! It's so fluffy!" said Deoxys, happily stroking a Fluffy Tail and playing with it like an alien kitten.

"…what the hell just happened?" wondered Chairperson Erma.

* * *

 **MEANWHILE WITH LAVANNA**

"I see." Ice said. He eyed Kairi dangerously, wondering if he could finish her off but decided against it in the last second "Garchomp! Let's go!"

A roar from the dragon and a roar from the helicopter, Heath, Lavanna and Ice were carried away, presumably back to Altru Tower. Kairi finally let down her shield and cuddled herself to try and beat the cold. She was disappointed in herself- she could not manage to take down Ice.

Would Zero have been able to do it, if he were in her shoes? Definitely. Zero was amazing, and she still had a ways to go before she could catch up with him…

 _"_ _HOLY SH** THE BAD GUYS WERE ATTACKING!"_ said someone in an alien language up above Kairi. It was Deoxys just in case you were wondering. She swooped down and found Kairi, then changed into her speed mode and examined the entire building- every enemy was incapacitated.

"It looks like we managed to fend off the attack." said the ribonian through Kairi's Styler.

"Yeah, mostly…" Kairi brushed herself off "Are you fine?"

"I took down two of the Sinistrio, but yeah, I'm fine." replied Deoxys, unknowingly making Kairi feel sad inside. Deoxys looked around- thankfully there wasn't much damage to the Ranger Union "I wonder why they attacked us in the first place?"

* * *

 **MEANWHILE WITH THE SINISTRIO ON THEIR HELICOPTER**

"You know guys, I just realized something…" said Ice "…why did we attack the ranger HQ in the first place instead of completing the tower?"

"Oh well that's because…" Lavanna started "That's… um… well…"

"Lookie here, I got my gatookus kicked! And you are saying to me we have reason not to attacking!?" questioned Heath angrily.

"No, we definitely had a reason for attacking, I swear!" Lavanna argued back "I mean… I know we did…but…"

* * *

 **MEANWHILE WITH A META JOKE**

Issac, the mushroom haired kid genius who was able to complete the programming for the Altru Tower, was currently doing the final adjustments to make sure that it could mind control every pokémon within a 500 kilometer radius. Not that he knew of course, he had been tricked into thinking the tower was going to create Dream Energy™ to solve the energy crisis.

However, as he was doing the final adjustments, he paused for a brief instant while writing computer code.

"Why do I have the strangest feeling I was supposed to be at the Ranger headquarters? And that the Sinistrio have to get me back to finish the machine?"

Shrugging, he went back to work.

* * *

"I guess we'll never know." shrugged Deoxys "But on the bright side, we know their attack failed."

"Why do I have a feeling we broke sequence someone?" the brunette girl grimaced.

The other rangers arrived shortly after that. After a brief discussion to bring everyone up to speed, and introducing Deoxys to the rest of the Rangers, everyone had calmed down and started to talk about the next step.

"This was clearly a move designed to impede our progress. Luckily for us, Kairi and well… Deoxys were here to save us." said Chairperson Erma. Although the attack had failed overall, some of their equipment had been destroyed. They would have to get technicians to repair those items.

Aside from this however, they were back at square one. They would have loved to attack Blake Hall again, but was clear that the Dream Machine ™ has at least enough power to take over its general region- meaning any attack they led would see them immediately cornered by their own pokémon.

"Then all that's left to do…" the ranger chief walked away, sighing "Is to wait until more luminous shards are created…"

* * *

"And here's number four!" said a sweaty and nearly naked looking Ollie, placing a glowing pink crystal on the table next to the doorway. With that, Calestia now had four luminous shards that could temporarily shield them from Blake's mind control devices. It was 5:00PM, and they needed at least two more to be made- maybe three for Lucario, who insisted on coming with Mercifond 'just in case she needed to be attacked. Because I hate her'.

Ollie quickly went back in and shut the door. The pokémon merely watched.

"What are they doing in there?" Gardevoir wondered "I mean they said that somehow this 'sex' thing will make more luminous shards but…"

"Ooh ooh! I know!" Ruby raised her hand "Mewtwo said that sometimes humans engage in procreative activities that do not necessarily reproduce an infant for the purposes of erotic stimulation alone!"

Gallade and Gardevoir simply looked at Ruby "What do all of those words mean?"

"I have no idea but Mewtwo said it!"

Another silence passed between the three. Waiting was boring, and they still hadn't heard from Kairi or Deoxys on the status of the ranger base. Gardevoir was shifting back and forth in a nervous manner, occasionally biting her lip.

Gallade noticed this and said "You're worried about Darkrai, aren't you?"

"Well… yes…" Gardevoir admitted.

"I'm sure he's fine. Even if he is mind controlled, he's probably fighting with every bit of his power to break free."

* * *

 **MEANWHILE INSIDE DARKRAI'S MIND**

"Damn it! I'm fighting with every bit of my power to break free but I can't do it!" complained the prince of darkness.

"Try being someone better." suggested Asmodeus.

"Shut up, at least I have a body!" Darkrai retorted.

"Which will be mine one day…"

"I said shut up! I need to think!"

Because Darkrai was a growing illusions master and had been subjected to mind control in the past (namely by Mewtwo, Kurades, Mewtwo, his own mother and Mewtwo in that order), brainwashing him worked a tad differently than most other pokémon.

Instead of being subject to total mental domination, Darkrai's defense mechanisms instead made it so that his brain was both able to be controlled but keep a portion of himself freed. Darkrai's original personality, which was suppressed, was trying to break free from the golden armor's mind control.

This manifested itself as a maze in Darkrai's body. Endless twists and turns within his brain, composed of all of Darkrai's memories, thoughts and dreams. Navigating it was nigh impossible, as the maze had the tendency to shift its formation and the pitch black pokémon was functioning at only half mental capacity.

That, and Darkrai had no idea what he was supposed to be looking for.

"Think! Obviously I'm inside my own mind… and I can feel my body being mind controlled but I still feel like 'me'… how can I get control over my body again?"

"By handing it over to me."

That, and Asmodeus was here as well. He was probably trying to torment Darkrai, since if the prince completely shut down the man might be able to take control over his body.

 _"_ _Why do I have to eat this!?"_ shouted a higher pitched version of Darkrai on the wall.

 _"_ _Because vegetables make you grow big and strong!"_ said his mother enthusiastically.

"Nice memory." chuckled the demon in his mind. Darkrai ignored him and raced forward, only to be met by a dead end.

Suddenly, the wall shifted and an image formed: _"_ _Try to find your center."_ explained a holographic Victini _"_ _After all, illusions are only as powerful as the wielders mind is steeled. If you can't stable your own mind, then it can be corrupted by other illusions."_

"…" Darkrai gazed at the wall, contemplating Victini's words. Asmodeus merely watched the scene unfold of Darkrai's training.

"Find the center, huh?" wondered Darkrai. Did that mean that in the center of the maze was Darkrai's ticket out? Or did it mean something in a philosophical manner?

"Hm…" after a bit of thinking, the dark type decided to meditate, thinking it may provide some clues. Recalling his master's words, the dark type focused in on his one-ness with himself. He tried to feel himself, his bounds and limits as well as his own potential. His trance made him go deeper and deeper into his mind, which could be dangerous if he lost himself within the flow of Blake's orders.

Then, suddenly, an image appeared in his mind when he attained the final state. A brief flash of a maze and a glowing yellow center, which was not seen by Darkrai, but rather felt.

He stood up "I saw something! I need to get to the center of this maze!" he could not explain it, but then again, this was his own brain he was talking about.

"Oh boy, can't wait to see how you screw it up." laughed the ever sadistic Asmodeus. The maze shifted again- this time the dead end opened up and revealed a new unknown pathway. Darkrai raced down it, but stopped when he saw another memory flash

 _"_ _"Let me save you."_ said a teary eyed, smiling Gardevoir.

He had paused at that memory because it was dear to him. The fact that she… or any one of his friends was willing to go so far as to help him when he was at his most despaired… it was a comforting thought and gave him inner peace.

"Tch." Asmodeus grumbled "Light is Light and Dark is Dark. Worthless memories."

"Screw you." Darkrai retorted. His friends were by his side, and once he figure out how to get out of here, then he would be by theirs. The wall shifted as a new memory formed.

It was quiet. Quiet and dark, but alit by the full moon. A gardevoir woman with a crown and an elegant dress lay under a tree, gently caressing a nearby flower. She was calm but appeared to be impatiently waiting as well.

"Wait, what?" Darkrai was confused, eyeing the image more closely "When did this happen to me?"

She gazed upwards, as if looking for something. Then, a black shadow appeared in the grass. It slowly crept up to her and materialized itself.

 _"_ _You're late."_ she said.

 _"_ _Didn't want to show up."_ replied the pitch black pokémon _"_ _But I figured your sorry ass could use a bit of me to ruin this perfect night."_ he grinned sinisterly.

 _"_ _Well, I am sorry to inform you, but you have failed."_ replied the smiling woman _"_ _I wanted you to come."_

 _"I only came because it's my fricken duty to guard you."_

 _"I told you back at the castle to let me be alone. You had every ability to stay away. Yet you did not."_

 _"I… like I said, I just wanted to-"_

She quickly took his gaze. Their eyes met, and oddly enough the dark type didn't seem to mind the closeness _"_ _Then I command you to stay with me. Then you won't make any more excuses for why you want to stay with me."_

A luminous blush came over his dark fur, and he mumbled curses under his breath but said nothing aloud. He sat next to her and leaned on the large tree. They said nothing else that peaceful night, but it was not such a bad thing.

The memory ended. Darkrai's eyes were widened ever so slightly. Grinning, he said "So Asmodeus… remind me about how Light and Dark work again? I can't quite remember…"

The ever sarcastic demon had already vanished. Darkrai continued to smile- perhaps Asmodeus wasn't as corruptible as he led others to believe. It was actually kind of cute how he appeared to, at least from what Darkrai understood, harbor feelings for a good looking girl.

Asmodeus popped in just then for a split second, because he had actually heard Darkrai's train of thought. With a quick breath he proclaimed: "Darkrai X Gardevoir."

"IT'S NOT TRUE AND IT WILL NEVER BE TRUE AND SHE LIKES GALLADE ANYWAY AND-"

* * *

 **MEANWHILE BACK AT THE BASE**

"Even if he cannot break free, we shall do it for him." said Gallade confidently. This gave the green haired girl some ease. Gardevoir stood up and announced that she was going to prepare for the battle to come. She walked away and Gallade silently watched her leave.

Ruby had a small smile on her face "It must be hard, liking somebody who doesn't like you back."

"…yeah…" Gallade replied. He had to admit that the most important factor in changing his feelings for Gardevoir was simply because she did not feel the same way. Ruby shuffled her feet and looked at him with longing eyes

"I also know how that feels…"

"…what?" asked Gallade absentmindedly.

"Do you know where Mewtwo is!?" Ruby was back to her hyperactive self "He told me that he'd tell me how to make explosives from a paperclip and a shoelace! He hasn't shown up yet!"

Gallade gulped; the last thing they needed was another pokémon with Mewtwo's interest running about- the world could not handle so many explosions and mad science "Er, I'm sure he's fine… but why do you want to…?"

"Cuz' he's my idol!" said the shiny gardevoir enthusiastically "I wanna be just like him one day! He's so cool, and strong and smart!

Plus, even after all that he's been through, he wouldn't even THINK about abandoning his friends!"

* * *

"Where is… he…!?" breathed an ancient human. He could sense that the time of death was nigh- but there was yet one more prophecy to be revealed.

It was strange. Seers always had their final prophecy, then immediately lost their vision powers and subsequently died soon after. Alekandra could have sworn that the last vision was for Absolix, and with his final breaths he was ready to disappear from the world.

Yet as he was on way to visit the distortion world, he suddenly felt energetic again and received another vision. It was all so sudden and odd, but nonetheless Alekandra had his duty as a Seer to relay his final vision: to Mewtwo.

Though the psycat lay in isolation, he was constantly scanning the area for any brain waves that were looking for him within a finite distance from himself. It just so happened that the great Alekandra wandered within this distance, and the powerful psychic pokémon teleported in, shocking the man.

"Alekandra…?" questioned Mewtwo "What are you doing here?"

The dark skinned man breathed heavily. He hadn't much time.

"Mewtwo… your vision…" he huffed, clutching his stick tighter "I have seen your plight and peril. I have seen that you are struggling deeply with a certain question."

The psychic's eyes widened. Indeed, he did have a burning question on his mind. It was a simple yes or no answer with great consequences either way. Aside from Deoxys, Arceus and the others trying to find him, this was the other reason he has isolated himself: because he didn't want their opinions to interfere with his decision.

"You must choose 'Yes'…" said Alekandra plainly "That is… the answer. You will find happiness by choosing 'Yes'."

The psycat's eyes widened again. He almost was unable to react when the man collapsed. In Mewtwo's arms, the human could feel himself fading away. The psycat nearly considered bolstering the human's lifespan with psychic powers, but one look from Alekandra stopped him. It was finally time.

The man mused on his life thus far as his thoughts slowed. He hoped that everyone he had given visions to would find peace, hoped that their paths were made just a bit easier by his guidance. As his eyelids closed, he thought he saw someone smiling down at him.

Mewtwo gazed upon the deceased human in his arms.

"Thank you…Alekandra." he said silently. Pausing for a brief instant, Mewtwo opened the channel directly to Arceus.

"Alekandra is dead. His body can be found at coordinates 3000-2389- 0097." Mewtwo stated, before quickly turning off the channel as to not hear Arceus talking back. The psycat gently laid him down on the grass, then Teleported away. He had to be isolated again, but this time, to answer the question.

* * *

After seemingly endless hours of waiting, Elaine and Ollie emerged together with the sixth and final crystal.

Cresselia, Gallade, Gardevoir, Malispite and Mercifond, along with Ruby each gathered a crystal and with a few minor adjustments, put them on as necklaces. They could feel the tiny luminous shard's power around their necks.

Calestia had two hours to save Almia.


	3. III: FML

**-Part three: FML (Full Mental Loss)-**

* * *

As soon as the necklaces were put on, a rush of power surged through the Calestia group.

Or at least, that's what they thought would happen. They thought that if the necklaces were to be put on, they would experience clarity of thought which would allow them to resist mind control. Instead they got this:

"G-Gardevoir you look…" Gallade blushed.

"Latios…" said Cresselia dreamily.

"Gallade…" Ruby clutched his arm.

"Lucario…!" Mercifond motioned to him.

"Melo- WAIT, WHAT WAS THAT!?" Malispite glared at his sister. The white bat went defensive and told him that she had no idea what came over her.

"It's already happening…" said Professor Hastings ominously "They are experiencing overpowering lovey-dovey emotions!"

"W-We can control it!" Cresselia smacked herself back to normal, embarrassed. She turned to her group "You lot! We have a mission! Get a hold of yourselves!"

This managed to bring the group back, despite the fact that they could still feel the crystal's influence over them. Still, it beat elimination of free will by a long shot. Cresselia explained her plan.

"We of Calestia, along with Kairi," she motioned to the brown haired woman, "shall immediately invade first. We will try to sneak in as best we can and try to destroy the tower's power source or something to make it unable to work. You Rangers will join us in about an hour with the two luminous crystals in hand- once we have located the shadow crystal, use them combined with the one they stole to seal it for good!

My team, we have three primary objectives. One: Find the third shadow crystal and give it to the Rangers. Two: Disrupt the tower in any way possible. Three: Locate Darkrai. He's probably gotten himself mind controlled at this point so Kairi, we'll need you to snap him out of it."

Kairi nodded her head. Cresselia turned to her group, feeling a bit nervous. Unlike before, Arceus was not watching them. They were on their own and failure meant being brainwashed into mindless servants, not to mention an entire country would collapse. Staring into the eyes of her comrades, they gave her determined looks that reassured her.

"Latios, give me a kiss goodbye. We're off to save Almia!" Cresselia shouted. Cheers from everyone, and a quick peck on the cheek from her boyfriend "Another one for good luck!" Latios obliged by giving her another peck "And now full tongue for even better-"

Gallade quickly slapped Cresselia's beak, causing her to snap out of her horniness "Er that is, we'll be leaving now!"

With a final goodbye, the members of Calestia exited the building. Cresselia eyed the skies- Deoxys was supposed to be supporting them from somewhere…

"I'm here." the alien quickly swooped down "Sorry about that… thought I had finally found Mewtwo…"

"He's the strongest psychic, he'll be fine." Cresselia spoke words of reassurance. Her words did nothing but give them false hope; Mewtwo had been acting very strangely recently and there was no telling what he'd do.

"…Let's go."

"Let's save Almia." the brown haired ranger added. Deoxys wrapped her arms around Kairi and went into speed forme. Together, the group raced to Altru Tower.

They moved swiftly and silently to avoid detection. Indeed, as they got closer to Pueltown and subsequently the tower itself, there appeared to be more Dim Sun grunts looking for anything suspicious. Malispite suggested they simply take them out, but Kairi had the better idea of running past them, that way Blake had no idea when they were coming.

"He knows we are coming… but not when." Kairi stressed "If we can just surprise him early, we can retrieve the last gem before he even knows we're inside the tower!"

More running and flying through Pueltown. In the shadows of buildings they remained well hidden, until they reached the final stretch. There, a line of grunts shoved some angry looking citizens back, forming a line to watch all sides of the tower.

"It looks like we'll have to fight," reasoned Gallade "since there is nothing to hide behind in the park." he motioned the clearing ahead.

"No wait, maybe there's another way!" Kairi began to think.

"But we wanna FIIGGGHHTTT…" complained the pokémon, whose instinctual need for battle arose after arduously waiting for the past five hours. The human shushed them up and asked if Gardevoir could Teleport them, one at a time, to the back of the building.

The range was too far away for her, but the group managed to get closer by using the forest alongside the park to their advantage. Eventually they reached a point where Gardevoir could do it.

The fairy psychic closed her eyes and started to Teleport them, one by one, a solid 20 meters to a specific point. All of Calestia except Deoxys, who was blindingly fast and reached it anyway, finally reached the back of Altru Tower where they were met by a metal door and an eye scanner.

"My turn!" said Gallade "I shall pick this lock no matter what the cost!"

He turned towards the door, who eyed him: _"_ _Beep. Please enter password Beep."_

"Another password locked door… don't worry, we're good at this." Gallade assured them "Is the password… No hablo Español?"

 _"_ _ERROR"_

"What about Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A?"

 _"_ _NOT EVEN CLOSE"_

"I see." said Gallade, thinking "Well if it isn't any of those passwords, there can only be one answer!"

Some of Calestia nodded their heads as Gallade spoke "My father is a giant D**che!"

 _"_ _Password accepted,"_ a simple click of the locks and the door slid open.

"This is it…" breathed Cresselia "You all know the plan. Gallade, Gardevoir, search for the last luminous crystal. Malispite and Mercifond… find the power source or whatever of this tower and destroy it! Cause as much mayhem as you both can for a distraction. Kairi and Ruby, you're with me. We'll go after Darkrai together, I can already feel him somewhere nearby…"

During the battle between Calestia and Xeno, Cresselia's 'duality link' had become awakened. Because she and Darkrai were embodiments of similar yet opposite concepts, as well as the fact that they were twins, the two could sense each other when one was in trouble.

"Do you feel anything from him?" questioned Gardevoir.

Cresselia paused "That's the thing… I feel nothing from him. Absolutely nothing. He's mind controlled, that's for certain."

Cresselia pondered this thought for a moment before going back to business "Finally… Deoxys, secure the entrance so that the rangers can get in. Everyone, look out for yourselves. Dismissed."

They went inside the tower.

Calestia emerged in a dimly lit room but because they were pokémon, they could see a little more clearly than the average human. Calestia could tell they were in a garbage disposal room of sorts, with trash bags everywhere. They calmly proceeded through the room, seeing a door on the other side.

"It's amazing how much humans throw away…" said Malispite under his breath.

They got to the door "Anyone on the other side?" asked Kairi to the psychics.

"Yeppers!" Ruby answered, having Telepathy at her disposal "There's like, about three of them! One of them is hitting on the other one, and that other person hates it!"

"I see. We'll need to be fast then." Cresselia said to herself. She turned to Gallade and Gardevoir "Can you disable them with psychic powers before they can react?"

"Already have." smiled Gardevoir.

Everyone looked at her, then the door. Quietly, they opened the door and found three unconscious humans in black clothing. They turned back to Gardevoir, who laughed nervously "Eheh… Ariados tried to teach me how to disable my enemies. Using Psyshock, I can make pokémon faint by targeting their brains."

"…awesome." congratulated Malispite, having found new respect for his teammate.

"Um, I can only use it on still targets for now…" said the ever modest psychic.

Cresselia stepped into the room, discovering that it had stairs and elevators that went further up the tower "Good work Gardevoir. This is where we split up… good luck to all of you in your respective areas! Go!"

"Alright! Let's tear this piece of shit tower apart!" Malispite grinned. He and Mercifond quickly sped upward though the open ceiling to floors up above. Kairi, Cresselia and Ruby went up one part of the stairs while Gallade and Gardevoir went up another. Deoxys went her separate way to secure the entrance. Operation Viktory had begun.

Malispite and his sister sped further upward into the giant tower. There many grunts patrolling the upper floors, to which the two began using Ice Beams and Thunderpunches and everything at their disposal to either eliminate the grunts or attract them.

As they sped higher and higher, the tower reacted accordingly. One alert after another was fired, until five minutes into their mayhem, when Blake Hall got word.

"Calestia…" he sneered. Further damage to the Altru Tower might damage its internal structure. Blake Hall turned on his microphone "All units of Dim Sun! Deal with the white and brown bats before I get angry! Use any means possible to subdue them!"

Suddenly, a crash was heard behind him. Blake Hall looked backwards to see a large hole in his floor and two bat like pokémon who looked surprised to see him.

"…oh!" Malispite grinned "We found the boss. Maybe this'll be easier than we thought."

"For once I agree with you." said Mercifond, hand glowing with light energy "Let's take him out early!"

Blake did not understand what they were saying, but got the gist of it from their expressions. He turned back to the microphone "…on second thought, nix that command. Instead, I will deal with them. The rest of you must search for the remaining members of Calestia."

Mercifond's Chosen One necklace, which on occasions acted as a universal translator, was able to translate English to Pokespeak automatically "He said… he's going to deal with us personally?"

"Hah!" Malispite laughed "See these?" he held up his necklace in an exaggerated motion "They make us immune to your stupid-ass machines! You've got nothing on us!"

The black haired man calmly stood up, making clanking noises as he walked towards them. Slowly, he lifted golden helmet on his desk and put it on his head "Interesting… luminous shards? How troublesome. So let's fix that…"

Blake Hall held up his hand and commanded the Golden Armor to work its might upon these two insignificant ants. And after two seconds of exposure, that was all they felt like being if it meant to serve Blake for all of eternity.

"Those necklaces will be a hindrance to the plan… therefore. You two." he pointed to the bats "Search for Calestia and remove their necklaces, then destroy them.

Malispite and Mercifond nodded their heads once. They quickly destroyed their own necklaces and flew down from the hole whence they came.

"Fools…" sighed the golden clad villain "They think they can stop me? Wrong. They'll only make me stronger."

* * *

Kairi, Ruby and Cresselia sped up more flights of stairs, stealthily avoiding any grunts. Kairi noticed that the pair kept going upward "Cresselia, are you sure you know where you're going?"

"Yes…" said Cresselia, albeit in a nervous manner. The duality link was new to her but the swan had a feeling that Darkrai was 'somewhere upwards', so she went with that. They quickly hid as some grunts came by, following an explosion likely created by the bat twins. They were doing their job of distracting perfectly.

"It's sisterly love!" said Ruby happily "Go get him, cuz!"

Kairi followed Cresselia in silence. To say that the girl was apprehensive would be an accurate statement- they were going to fight Darkrai after all. The prince of darkness had a reputation for defeating the world's most fearsome human alive, as well as punching Absolix and somehow getting away with it. A fight against him would be tough.

"Cresselia…" began the brown haired human "Are… are we sure that we can do this? Bring Darkrai back, I mean?" her memory up against Ice was still clear; if she couldn't hope to defeat that man, then what chance did she have against Darkrai?

"Probably." said the purple swan as a calm as ever "Why?"

"I mean… what if I'm…"

Suddenly the intercom interrupted the girl: _"_ _All units of Dim Sun! Deal with the white and brown bats before I get angry! Use any means possible to subdue them!"_

After Kairi translated to Cresselia and Ruby, the lunar queen chuckled. The plan was working perfectly. With all of Blake Hall's resources trying to contain the hell raiser that was Malispite and his sister, the rest of them could slip in and sabotage the entire operation before he even noticed. Ruby also expressed optimism that there was no way those two could fail.

But then, a mere ten seconds and one loud crashing noise later, the intercom came on again.

 _"…_ _on second thought, nix that command. Instead, I will deal with them. The rest of you must search for the remaining members of Calestia."_

Kairi paused for a brief instant. She translated this news to Cresselia, who looked confused "What? He's going to take them on personally?"

"Yeah…" Kairi looked up, trying to see if she could find them. She was nervous "Something's wrong. There's no way he would say that."

"Pssh, what's he going to do?" reasoned Ruby. Malispite and Mercifond were the best there were, and Blake was a mere human. Without the power of his Gigaremos ™, how could he possibly take them out?

"Still, we should be carefully. Remember: as far as our species goes, we're pretty weak, but we make up for it in brains." Kairi pointed out.

Cresselia paused at this, but insisted they press on. Maybe Hall did have another trick up his sleeve, but that didn't change the fact that they had a mission to do. The girls went upward, where the tower increasingly got less wide and strangely, more dark.

"He's close…" Cresselia motioned "I can feel him."

A figure blocked their path. It was none other than Mercifond, who looked at them with a blank stare.

Now, normally this would be the part where our heroes investigate this strange event only to get sucker punched by their mind controlled friend. However, unlike every other shounen in existence, Kairi and Cresselia were smart. They knew that Mercifond without her brother was suspicious enough, combined with the fact that she wasn't doing her duty and giving them a blank stare in a tower where mind control was completely possible, they were suspicious from the get go. Kairi felt her Styler and Cresselia charged up energy.

Ruby however…

"Aloha Mercifond!" said the fire type "Weren't you supposed to be with your bro?"

"Kairi, use your Styler on her!" commanded Cresselia instantly. Instead of Ruby getting sucker punched by the white bat, Kairi got the drop on her instead. A loop around the bat made her let out a scream, which caused Mercifond to charge in anger. Ruby realized something was off and Teleported back to her human.

"How the fric!?" Cresselia put up a Light Screen to defend themselves against the bat's Ice Beam attack. She knew Mercifond was being mind controlled, but this was still shocking since the means were an unknown "Why is she mind controlled?! I thought the luminous shards gave us immunity!"

Cresselia quickly noticed that her white furred friend had no luminous shard on her. The swan suspected that was the reason, but Kairi had figured it out:

"It's another form of mind control." she realized. Cresselia and Ruby looked at her and Kairi elaborated: "Look at her head! There's no orange swirly thing above it!"

Indeed there was not. Whenever a pokémon was under the influence of any technology relying on dark shards or the shadow crystal, an orange spiral appeared above their head. Yet, Mercifond had none and was clearly under Blake Hall's control.

"You've got to be kidding me…!" snarled the yellow and purple swan "There's another way to get mind controlled!? How!?"

"No idea, but we'd better figure it out fast!" said the ranger as Mercifond dove in for another attack.

* * *

Deoxys fought off the grunts at the entrance so fast that Cytosine would be jealous. In a mere two minutes she had arrived back at the Altru Tower entrance, where she saw chaos taking place. Deoxys noted Calestia's work.

Above stealth now, she flew straight downwards and pummeled two grunts on the outside with her inertia, then quickly dispatched of two more. That was all the Dim Sun in the area- the rest were sent inside to combat the intruders.

Deoxys shifted to her Normal Forme and began walking towards the building. She was careful, because she thought that she had senses a presence in the garden just outside the tower. Her intuition paid off- the alien narrowly avoided a mine trap, which exploded prematurely and gave her a bit of damage. The girl quickly Recovered it off and yelled "Who's there!?"

A shadow shifted "My, my… you ribonians certainly do have quite the healing factor, don't you?"

From the bushes emerged none other than Toyman. Two more of his robot copies appeared behind him, Deoxys couldn't tell what was going on.

"You… Toyman." Deoxys remembered.

"I've analyzed the situation, and your high power would make it difficult for my boss to attain his plans. Therefore, I shall deal with you appropriately." two more robots came from behind her, steadily creeping.

"What, you can clone yourself?" Deoxys questioned.

"Actually these are my robot duplicates. Defeat them, and I'll fight you personally in my true form." explained the masked man.

"Fine then. Psycho Boost!" before anyone had time to react, Deoxys turned around and launched a burst of psychic energy at one of the targets, so powerful that the instant it hit the robotic Toyman exploded, leaving the situation instantly 4-1.

"This will be troublesome…" Toyman complained before all four swarmed at Deoxys.

* * *

Gallade wished that he did not go with Gardevoir. It's not like he didn't understand the logic- he was a powerhouse physical attacker and she was a supportive special attacker. Plus, the two had been friends since forever, knew how each other liked to fight and so on. The synergy was good, and Gallade understood that.

The problem was this: In order to evade Blake Hall's mind control machines they had to wear necklaces literally created with the power of sex. Though it beat losing all sense of free will by a long shot, it still didn't mitigate the fact that they were a man and a woman infused with horniness energy. The fact that Gallade might or might not be in love with Gardevoir didn't make the BST any easier.

The pair travelled upwards in complete silence. Gallade suspected that his friend was feeling the same was as he was.

"Do you think we're close to Darkrai yet?"

His thoughts were interrupted by Gardevoir "Er… come again?"

"I… I was just wondering if we were close to him yet. We've been looking for a while now…" said the psychic type.

"…I thought our mission was to find the third luminous crystal?"

"O-Oh yeah! Eheh…" Gardevoir blushed and looked away. The pair travelled once again. Just when things were about to get even more tense, they saw something that broke the ice.

"Gardevoir! Look!" He quickly grabbed her and pulled her close to the wall. They peered behind, seeing about five Dim Sun grunts suspiciously on the lookout next to a door with a warning sign on it.

"Do you think…?" Gardevoir began. Gallade simply nodded "It is likely in there. If not, there is something definitely suspicious about that door. We shall investigate!"

With a roar from the both of them, the psychics assaulted the grunts in a surprise attack. Leaf Blades and Dazzling Gleams were everywhere. Because they were only grunts and had weak pokémon such as stunky and nosepasses, the pair were able to KO the entire group in less than ten seconds.

They turned their attention to the door "Yes, this door is definitely strange…" said Gallade. Upon closer examination, warning signs were all over the door, and the thing was bolted shut from every angle. For some reason, a timer was next to the door that currently read 15:37:39 and was counting down.

"I think I can do this…" said Gardevoir. Their job was to sneak in after all and leave the distractions to Malispite and Mercifond. The fairy psychic decided to Teleport inside, since she could sense no one. To be careful though, she told Gallade to bust open the door after thirty seconds if she didn't come back.

Gallade nodded, and the psychic warped. At first, there was nothing. Gallade heard no screaming, no fighting noises, nor machines from the inside of the room. It was complete silence. However, that silence lasted more than 30 seconds, which meant something was wrong. Gallade extended his blade and Psycho Cutted the bolts of the door, then fell it with a single kick.

"Gardevoir!?" Gallade yelled. The room was brightly lit, with some thin pink mist everywhere. A single machine was in the center, a glass looking sphere connected to a dais and many wires.

Gardevoir came out from nowhere and hugged him "Hiii Gallyyyyy~~~!"

"What the!? Gardevoir! Are you alright!?" questioned the male psychic.

"I'm reaaallly happy Gallyy~~~~!" Gallade noticed that Gardevoir was covered a fine pink layer of dust, giving her normally white skin a pinkish hue. She was blushing as if she was drunk, and she was FAR too happy for a girl that knew her best friends were all in danger.

"Wha…what happened to you!?" gasped Gallade in confusion.

"I'm gonna find Darky now kay~~?"

She Teleported out.

"…WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!?" Gallade said in exasperation.

* * *

Malispite has his orders. He was to find the remaining members of Calestia and destroy their luminous shards. He did not know or care why, Blake Hall commanded it and that was all that mattered.

Suddenly, he found one. Gardevoir. She was dancing along the hallway, very carefree, and every easy to take down. The bat zoomed towards his target. Malispite grabbed the girl with his sharp claws in order to better secure her luminous shard.

And then he suddenly realized he was hurting Gardevoir.

"Oh my…! I'm so sorry Gardevoir!" Malispite apologized.

"Teehee, it's okay Mallyspite~~!" said Gardevoir happily, seemingly not feeling the blood on her own shoulder. Her body was already healing herself, so it didn't matter much.

"Gardevoir…are you okay?" questioned the eight foot tall bat. Then, he remembered: "Blake! That bastard! I'M GONNA KILL HIM THIS TIME!"

Malispite opened his broad black wings and took off. Gardevoir mentioned how silly 'Mallyspite' was, then began dancing in another direction to look for Darky.

* * *

Kairi had her eyes widened. Mind controlled Mercifond was of much lower power than her normal self, and so with the help of Cresselia and her partner, the girls subdued their friend and snapped her out of it. A few Moonlight's later, and the white bat was ready to talk.

After apologizing for all the trouble she put them into, Mercifond had told them that she and her brother had met with Blake Hall and tried to take him out early, but failed. Cresselia asked about every minute detail, fearing the worst.

Eventually Mercifond got around to describing a 'golden armor' that Blake was wearing, presumably to try and take hits from them better. This was the reason why Kairi's eyes were widened, because all of the pieces had finally come together.

"That's the Golden Armor!" exclaimed the ranger and the partner pokémon at the same time. Ruby and her human quickly relayed the details- how the golden armor was created by the White Knight many years ago, how it was able to control any pokémon in the Oblivia mission, and how it had mysteriously vanished when Kairi defeated the SocieTea.

"What a lame name…" said Cresselia.

"I know!" Ruby said.

"But the fact is, Blake has the armor! The luminous shards are worthless!" the human gasped.

With this extra form of mind control, Blake Hall was untouchable by nearly all of Calestia. Cresselia thought quickly and realized there was only one option left with Deoxys's location unknown.

"Kairi. You'll have to defeat Blake Hall alone." said the lunar swan. She was the only one that could harm Blake without being brainwashed. The girl gathered her resolve and announced that she'd do it. Ruby was saddened by the separation, but Kairi insisted it was for the best. The two gave each other quick hug before Cresselia explained the new plan.

"Your job, Kairi, is simply to take the golden armor off of Blake Hall by any means necessary." stated the swan "Until you do, none of us can safely approach Blake Hall. Ruby, you can come with me, we'll have to somehow get Darkrai to snap out of it. Let's go, quickly!"

All three of them started to head up the stairs. After a few moments of running, the three looked at each other.

"…Why are you following me?" asked the human.

"I'm just going to where Darkrai is. He's moving upwards. You?"

"I'm going where Blake is- he's probably at the top of the tower, the safest position." replied Kairi.

There was a pause before Ruby interrupted them by smiling "Yays! We don't need to separate after all!"

The two other girls sighed and headed upward. After two more flights of stairs, they found a large door with a dark drop of oil upon it- Altru's symbol. It read "Floor ten" on it. The girls got an ominous feeling from the door, seeing as how there was no other way to proceed upward through this door.

"Hey! I can hear people mind talking inside!" said Ruby excitedly. There were three- two men and one woman, each thinking about how they were the greatest dark rangers to have ever existed. And hot dogs.

"The Sinistrio…" said Kairi "We'll have to fight them if we want to get to Blake."

"No." said Cresselia.

"…what?"

"We're pressed on time. I say we don't fight them."

"What the-!? Then how can we go up!?" Kairi asked. Cresselia looked at the wall beside them. Quickly, she let loose a Psychic that managed to demolish that side of the wall, leaving a gaping hole into the night sky.

"I say we be smart about this situation…" smiled the swan, glowing "And fly up there instead! On my back you two!"

Ruby eagerly leapt upon Cresselia's back, and Kairi went on as well. The lunar swan took off through the hole and soared upwards. A mere two stories later and Cresselia was at the top, where Blake was. Blake was making the final adjustments to his machine, which when hooked directly to the shadow crystal just a few meters away, would allow him to have dominion over every pokémon in the region.

The golden clad man heard the sound of Ruby laughing, and turned around. He was shocked to see Cresselia, Kairi and her partner pokémon land right in front of him. Black Hall tensed himself "I see you've made it here… you've already defeated my Sinistrio, huh?"

"Actually we skipped that and just flew here." responded Kairi

"Well those three are weaklings compared to me! I have more power than they- WHAT!?" Black Hall suddenly realized "You skipped them!? All three of them!?"

"Yep."

Hall cringed. He had set up floors ten through twelve to contain one Sinistrio member each, such that you would have to fight them in sequential order before facing Blake Hall himself. It would have been just like a mini-boss rush before facing the final enemy!

"But you… ruined it! How dare you!"

"You took my brother. I don't give a crap." Cresselia said rather bluntly.

"Fufufu… that reminds me…" Blake snapped his fingers. From the shadows a figure emerged. White hair, blue eyes, dark body, it was none other than Darkrai. A shining blue crystal like halo was over his head, indicating he was being controlled by the shadow crystal.

Darkrai gazed at them without expression.

"Darkrai!" cried his sister.

"Fufu… Darkrai, the pokémon who managed to defeat Zero Mitsurashi. I wonder if you can handle him?" laughed Blake. With a simple command for Darkrai to strike, the pitch black pokémon shot his fist towards his sister without remorse.

Cresselia put up a Light Screen, which blocked the attack. Kairi then activated her Super Styler and launched it towards Darkrai, getting a mere one loop before he vanished into the shadows. Just as the two women started to plan, Ruby attacked them with a Psychic in a silent fit of apathy.

"What!?" Cresselia groaned, before she too, suddenly started to attack Kairi. The human was at her wits end- Blake clearly did not intend to play fair. Her Stylers automated defense system sense Darkrai's massive Dark Pulse attack and shielded her from a lethal blow, but also sent her flying back.

"Urgh…!" Kairi gritted through the pain and sent her Styler towards her former comrades Ruby and Cresselia. A couple loops later, and they were back to normal.

"What the-?!" Cresselia snapped back to reality "You bastard…!" she glared at Blake "I'll destroy you!"

She launched an Ice Beam at Kairi, once again under the golden armor's spell.

Sh-Shit!" cursed Kairi, running for her life from the attacks of three separate pokémon. Blake Hall's speed at mind controlling pokémon was just as fast as Kairi was at capturing them. When combined with the simple fact that it was three powerful pokémon versus one semi powerful human, it was only a matter of time before Kairi ran out of stamina and they one-shotted her.

Kairi captured and recaptured Cresselia Ruby as they attacked, while avoiding Darkrai's blows. With her super Styler she was, for now, able to avoid an outright KO by the three attackers. While Kairi was at her wit's end trying to think up a plan, Blake Hall calmly typed away at his computer to finish the process.

If Blake Hall was able to complete the Altru Tower, every pokémon in Almia would be under his control. Game Over would be an understatement. Yet the girl couldn't do a thing- against her own friend, the leader of a legendary team and the man who had defeated the world's most feared human, she could do naught but wait until her stamina ran out and three disintegrated her.

Blake Hall would win. This much was certain, there was no possible hope of victory at this point. The ranger continued to capture and recapture, dodge and duck as the man in gold laughed at her from time to time. She pressed on hoping for a miracle. Anything.

Blake casually turned to her with a sinister grin "Oh by the way, just to rub salt in your own wounds, I destroyed the Luminous crystal."

Kairi gaped "What!?"

"Yep. Got a room, got a laser, blew it up into a million pieces. Guess you have no way of stopping me, huh?" Blake Hall laughed maniacally "I wouldn't go in the room for another fifteen hours of so, the mist might make you insanely happy. So yeah, gathering up all the pieces won't work either! Hahah!"

"No… you!" Kairi tried to say something but she was cut off by Darkrai slamming his fist into her shield. She skidded back, her Styler was low on power. Blake Hall in his golden armor, laughed at her helplessness.

"Check and mate, Rangers. Almia… is mine!" said Blake, laughing. Kairi fell to the ground. There no way to stop the shadow crystal. No way for her to win against three pokémon at once. Everything was over.

And then the unthinkable happened.

"Heeeeyyyy guuuyssss~~~!"

Everyone turned to the direction of the new voice. It was Gardevoir, except pinker.

"Kairy! Ruby! Cressey… Darky!" Gardevoir said happily "Huggy times!" she exclaimed before hugging all four of them at once.

"Gardevoir!? What are you doing here!?" Cresselia asked.

"Cousin! You turned shiny!" Ruby exclaimed happily. Darkrai merely stood still.

"…wait…" Kairi was the first one to realize something "Wait! You guys are back to normal and I didn't even capture you!"

"Impossible!" Blake Hall gasped "Darkrai! The rest of you! Obey me!"

However, only Darkrai went to Blake Hall's side- Cresselia and Ruby remained with Kairi and defied Blake. The black haired man began to sweat "Can it be…? Did she… did she actually go into the forbidden room!?"

Both the Gigaremo's™ and the Golden Armor mind controlled pokémon using the same principle: By using negative emotions such as fear, depression and the like it turned your target into more or less a vegetable by inducing a state of helplessness. Thus, they become highly suggestive to the one thing they believe can make them feel better: the controller.

By going into the forbidden room, Gardevoir had accidentally absorbed all of the positive emotions of the former luminous crystal, turning her into happy go lucky pokémon who, at the moment, could only feel happiness. While this could be dangerous in a battle situation since she would ignore fighting and pain entirely…

"…By simply being around her, pokémon receive her feelings of happiness!" concluded Blake Hall.

"So then… that means…"

"Huggies~~!" shouted Gardevoir.

"That means that you two can't be controlled while she's around!" grinned Kairi, finding a renewed sense of hope "But wait… why didn't it affect Darkrai?"

Blake looked over at his puppet. Indeed, why didn't it affect Darkrai? It should have, yet when Gardevoir gave him her hug, all that happened was that he stood still. At the moment however, he couldn't care- Blake Hall directed all of his power to Darkrai.

"I still have your strongest member! Darkrai, attack!"

Darkrai did nothing. The three girls had braced themselves for an attack, but none came. Blake Hall began to get nervous, ordering the prince of darkness to squash them. Yet, the pitch black pokémon remained still.

"Gardevoir! We need you to-" Kairi started, but realized that Gardevoir wasn't there anymore. Cursing, she turned back to Darkrai, who was still standing still no matter how hard Blake tried to order. Seeing this, the girls attacked him at once.

Suddenly, Darkrai clutched his head, as if he were in pain. His mouth opened but no words came out.

"What the-!?"

He lunged at the three girls then, but this time he was much stronger- even more so than Hall had predicted. Using their combined powers, the three fended off Cresselia's brother as he slowly began to emit noise from his mouth.

Darkrai began shouting in agony, as pulses of darkness energy began to seep from his body. Everyone in the building, even Blake looked surprised. In rage, Darkrai summoned a Dark Pulse that decimated the entire northern wall and continued out into the air. He clutched his head in pain.

"What have you done!?" Cresselia shouted.

* * *

"Where the hell is my center?" wondered Darkrai. He knew that he needed to find the center of his mind maze, but no luck so far. Asmodeus was gone at least, so there was no longer a nagging voice in his head.

The pitch black pokémon sped through the maze, turning corner after corner. A few minutes later and Darkrai had no idea where he was "Tch! This is stupid! I wish there was a map or something to my center!"

Just then, something materialized next to Darkrai. It was none other than a map of the entire maze on a signpost. It even shifted according to how the maze shifted. The prince of darkness was a little happier now.

"Excellent…" quickly he looked at the map and where he was currently. Then, seeing as how a straight line was the quickest way to get to his destination, he charged up a Dark Pulse Punch and launched himself straight at the wall.

The wall rebounded his attack and Darkrai's hand hurt immensely. Which in and of itself was a strange thought considering 'Darkrai' was just a manifestation of himself inside his own mind.

"Damn! How does my mind work!?" questioned the dark type "Maybe I should take psychology next semester…"

Darkrai looked at the map again, reluctantly deicing to finish the maze the old fashioned way. He retracted his legs and flew through the chambers, turning appropriate corners and not paying any attention to memories.

He saw something up ahead after he reached a long narrow segment. As he got closer to the object, Darkrai was startled to find that the object was himself. The prince of darkness skidded right next to the lookalike.

"Uh…" Darkrai asked.

"Hello." said his copy "The center of the maze should be that way. Good luck."

"Wait… who are you!?" demanded Darkrai to himself.

"I am you." answered his clone "Specifically, I am Cataclysm."

"…You mean… you're the attack that I fire off whenever I'm in trouble!?"

"Sort of." said the other Darkrai "This is your subconscious, remember? I represent the nightmarish aspect of you- think of me as a solid representation of the Cataclysm attack."

"Does that mean if I touch you I'll get nightmares?" questioned the nightmare pokémon.

"I have no idea actually. This is YOUR subconscious after all. That body you're using isn't here either. Hell, this maze doesn't even exist! It only exists because you imagined it to be here when you entered your own brain!" replied the clone.

"Wait, if that's true then why the hell can't I just imagine myself out of here?" Darkrai protested.

"How the hell should I know? I'm YOU. Actually, I'm just a portion of you, so I'd know even less." replied Cataclysm, frustrated.

"This is confusing." Darkrai officially hated his own brain.

"I know." replied a portion of his brain.

"…although, maybe it's good we ran into each other." Darkrai began to get serious "You should know about my… signature move, right?"

Cataclysm lowered his arms "I do."

"Then in that case, let's fight or whatever. Give me your power." said the prince of darkness.

Previously, Darkrai had explained his idea of the ultimate attack to Victini in hopes that the man would be able to shed some light on attaining it. After pausing for a minute, the red and orange rabbit told him that his idea of an undefeatable move was a good one. But then, he added-

 _"_ _If you really want to it to be the strongest… then you'll have to master that Cataclysm attack of yours. Otherwise, it'd just be second rate, wouldn't it?"_

"I know what you are trying to do." said Cataclysm "Which is why we will NOT fight."

"What!?"

"Understand this, me. You cannot master Cataclysm." the Darkrai lowered his gaze "You were born with a horrendous amount of nightmare abilities. Metaphorically speaking, I am the only thing keeping that side of you in check. If I even let loose a tenth of my power, everyone you love will suffer for it."

Darkrai was taken aback "I… I will control it. I will control my own nightmares!"

"No you will **_NOT!_** "

At the last word, Darkrai felt more fear than he even had before. Insane images flooded his mind. Feelings, thoughts, pictures, all interconnected in a distorted web of utter terror that nearly made him vomit. He was kneeling on the ground before he knew it, shrieking in agony.

"Do you see!?" Cataclysm said angrily "This is the terrible power you think you can have control of! But it cannot be controlled…. no… Cataclysm is pure chaos. Pure insanity. You can't handle it!"

To Cataclysm's surprise, Darkrai got back up. He was breathing heavily, with visible sweat on his fur. He took a few breaths of air.

"Keep it coming." said the prince of darkness.

"You… you're insane!"

"I am you." Darkrai retorted "I… I can do it. This time, I can do it. If I can just gain control over Cataclysm, then not only will people around me be in less danger, I'll be able to complete my technique!"

"If you master Cataclysm, the nightmares will become worse!" hissed the clone "The stronger you get, the stronger your nightmares become. But that will pale in comparison to if you were to actually gain the power of Cataclysm! You'd become a pariah, not even Arceus could be around you without suffering insanity!

You would be alone again."

At this, Darkrai widened his eyes. Yes, the master of fear had one thing that he was truly afraid of. He was afraid of being alone. His already potent nightmares limited the amount of pokémon that could be with him down to a select few. And if he lost them?

Darkrai knew he was telling the truth. After all, Cataclysm was simply a part of his mind, who governed his frightening powers just to keep them in check. Just to keep everyone around him sane. By allowing himself to gain the power of Cataclysm, it would isolate him from everyone and everything.

And yet…

And yet…

"So then what do you suggest I do?" questioned the prince of darkness "Keep this power locked up inside of me, letting it loose every time I get overheated?"

Cataclysm had no answer.

"I get it now… you also represent my fear of Cataclysm." breathed Darkrai "But at the same time… you don't know everything. What if I could completely control it!? What if I could have it active only when I say so!?"

"I won't risk it!" Cataclysm replied "You and I both know that we can't be alone again!"

"We won't!" shouted Darkrai "I'll succeed! I will!"

"You don't know that!"

Silence in the air. The two Darkrai's stared at each other, neither of them budging an inch. After a couple seconds, the real Darkrai gave way. He lowered his head.

"No… I don't…" admitted Darkrai. He gazed into his counterparts eyes "But I need power. I need to defeat Absolix one day. I need to… protect my friends. My family. Please… help me."

"…" Cataclysm was silent for a few seconds before replying "I'm… afraid."

"I'm afraid too." admitted Darkrai "But at the same time… I have to conquer my fear. I can't just wait until another desperate situation. I… We can do it. I believe in myself."

"…" Cataclysm paused for a minute "The instant you touch me… you'll experience that pain from before again. But it'll be much, much worse. And out there…" he referenced the true world "…you'll be emitting pulses of Cataclysm around you. Anyone caught in them will… well, you know.

And if you fail… then the full might of Cataclysm will come. And this time, your friends might not be able to save you. Your brain will short out. Everyone within a one hundred meter radius will die of nightmares…"

"Yeah..." said the pitch black pokémon "…Then if I'm wrong about this, I'll trust in my friends. Ready?"

"Yeah. Good luck." said the metaphysical representation of terror itself. Darkrai slowly walked over towards his metaphysical counterpart. He raised his hands and laid them upon the representation's shoulders.

Despair flooded his mind.

* * *

Darkrai suddenly began shouting in agony, as pulses of darkness energy began to seep from his body. Everyone in the building, even Blake looked surprised. In rage, he summoned a Dark Pulse that decimated the entire northern wall and continued out into the air.

"What have you done!?" Cresselia immediately realized the situation, having witnessed it twice before "This is Cataclysm! The greatest nightmare attack! We'll all be dead if he continues this."

Several more Shadow Punches from Darkrai hit Cresselia dead on. She stumbled back in pain and Blake Hall merely laughed "Hah! My golden armor will protect me. Darkrai! Finish them off!"

Darkrai's nightmare powers were starting to affect everyone now. The headache pain began to increase for not only the observers at the top, but even the rest of the building began to be in pain as well. The lunar swan realized there was only a limited amount of time before Cataclysm was unleashed.

"Cresselia!" Kairi yelled.

"I know!" Darkrai unleashed a Dark Pulse that shot past them and into the clouds, causing a massive explosion at the end. Cresselia put a barrier around herself, Ruby and Kairi.

"I have an idea! I'll enter my brother's dreams!" shouted the pink and yellow pokémon. Her mother had once said that since she was the embodiment of dreams, it should be very plausible for her to enter them. Her brother could even do it when the circumstances were right.

Yet there was one problem with her plan…

"Watch out!" Ruby suddenly said. Darkrai built up an enormous amount of power and summoned his signature attack- Dark Void. From a central black sphere in his hands, millions of Dark Void spheres were launched in every direction. Because Cataclysm was in effect, getting hit by a single one of them would be a death sentence.

Even Blake Hall was starting to feel unsure when Darkrai's attack nearly hit him as well, if not for his machines to block it.

Cresselia's Light Screen Attack shielded them at the moment, until Darkrai warped next to her and raised his fist. The lunar swan was so concentrated on not getting hit by the Dark Voids that she had no time to dodge or put energy into blocking. Darkrai punched his sister so hard that it cracked the ground and tore a hole to the previous floor. She took it all in for the sake of her companions.

Ruby's shielded, launched a Focus Blast at Darkrai which missed completely, and he countered with a Shadow Ball that hit her. All while this was going on, Kairi tried her best to loop around the pitch black pokémon. Her efforts were unsuccessful- even with Super Styler mode activated, Darkrai was fast and the Dark Voids obscured her vision.

Finally the Dark Voids dissipated into air and Cresselia collapsed, a little blood on her mouth.

Yes, the problem was this: it took all three of them just to hold Darkrai at bay. If Cresselia went inside Darkrai's mind, it would be just Kairi and Ruby versus the man who defeated Mitsurashi Zero. They would be killed without Cresselia's support attacks. Gardevoir had apparently vanished.

"Hahah! You see, I can still win!" Blake Hall yelled, but mostly for his own self confidence. His head was beginning to hurt- the Golden Armor's natural defenses were failing against Darkrai's increasingly powerful nightmare.

The prince of darkness charged up another massive Dark Pulse and was promptly punched in the face by a speedy brown arm.

Cresselia finally smiled.

"I think I get the situation." said the new figure "Let me guess, Darkrai's been mind controlled and Cataclysm is about to activate?"

"Yes!" Cresselia replied hurriedly "If I can get into Darkrai's mind, I can stop it!"

"Got it." Malispite said "Hey… Darkrai."

Darkrai got back up and instinctively attacked Malispite in a rage. Malispite dodged his Dark Pulse Punch and grabbed Darkrai's face. Malispite then slammed a Thunderpunch into Darkrai's stomach "Shut up."

Kairi and Ruby quickly attacked Blake Hall directly to distract him from using the golden armors powers on Malispite. Cresselia began to concentrate her psychic abilities while Malispite handled Darkrai by matching him blow for blow. Then, after an agonizing thirty seconds, Cresselia had done it. She suddenly became limp but her eyes were aglow with yellow.

"Alright." Malispite noted the change "She must have done it."

Darkrai suddenly blew Malispite backwards and caused him to crash. Growling, Malispite got back up and had a moment of clarity- that Kairi, being just a human, would be affected by Darkrai's nightmares more than they would. In fact, she already appeared to be sweating. Because she was the only one immune to both forms of mind control and thus the crux of their plan, Malispite had an idea.

"Clench your teeth, Darkrai!" he activated Demon's Offence in an instant and used Dynamicpunch upon Darkrai, which caused the pitch black pokémon to fly at amazing speeds away from the tower. Malispite used Pursuit to quickly give chase.

The human girl realized the headaches were gone, and saw Malispite growing ever distant with Darkrai in front of him. She silently thanked him and turned her attention back to Blake. Blake was dazed from the sudden turn of events, so Kairi took this opportunity to talk to Ruby: "Ruby, get away from here and find gardevoir. Once you do, bring her back here, got it?"

"You got it, Kairi!" Ruby Teleported away.

Kairi was once again alone. She stared at Blake Hall with determination, to which the moustache man brushed off as child's play.

"Oh dear, what am I going to do now?" said the dark haired man sarcastically before summoning a terrifying looking weavile, a mean looking tyranitar, and a sinisterly grinning gengar. All three stood next to Blake, looking at her like they were ready to kill. Kairi held her Styler up defensively.

"I'll defeat you for sure!" shouted Kairi.

"Hah!" laughed Blake "I can control as many pokémon as I like! You are but one girl up against an infinite army! I'm going to kill you here, and nothing nor anyone can stop me!"

The ranger and the villain faced each other and began their final duel.


	4. IV: My Nightmare

**-Part four: My Nightmare -**

* * *

Gardevoir was in the hallways of Altru Tower, spreading her happiness to everyone in Altru Tower. Grunts surrounded her from all sides and tried to attack her at every interval.

However, in this case, Gardevoir was more deadly than a nuclear weapon. Because she had absorbed so much happiness from the luminous crystal, she radiated it out to everyone around her. This had the profound effect of cancelling any and every Gigagremo was near. As a direct result, the pokémon that were once slaves to Dim Sun became free and turned upon their masters, while Gardevoir shorted out the mind control machines herself by cracking the darks shards inside, starting miniature fires in them that soon spread.

The result was a gigantic mess that not even Malispite could hope to cause- the Dim Sun's were everywhere trying rein in this uncontrollable chaos and failing miserably. Destruction was now the norm as pokémon fled and fought their former masters, thanking Gardevoir along the way for their freedom all while the fires spread faster.

The effects of the luminous crystal slowly began to wear off. Her happiness was only a finite amount and when it radiated from her to others, she lost a portion of it. Yet, while the happiness was limited… it was still a lot. So much so that even with all this chaos she had inadvertently caused, the girl was still bubbly as ever.

This incident would later be referred to by the Dim Sun members as the 'Pink Death'. She who was a grim reaper clad in bright pink, who descended upon them and sowed destruction and mayhem in her wake while chanting sadistically "Huggies for everyone!"

It was madness.

* * *

Though Gallade could not find Gardevoir, he could clearly see her handiwork. The entire tower was in disorder, pokémon and people were flying left and right and the grunts were struggling to regain control. Cresselia's initial plan of distraction was working perfectly, even if it wasn't the twins doing the distracting.

During the skirmish, the fighting psychic had found something interesting in one of the rooms: The power generator. The central machine that supplied electricity towards the entire tower.

It was a huge generator the size of an entire house, extending upwards around 10 meters, whirring and buzzing with warning signs all over it. The room was massive, and also possibly a part of the generator itself, nested in the very center of the tower and running power throughout via massive tree-trunk thick cables. And now it was unguarded thanks to the 'pink death'; this presented a huge opportunity for the male psychic.

Gallade was briefly smiling to himself- with Altru Tower a complete mess and Blake Hall distracted, he could capitalize on a rare opportunity to shut down the entire Altru Tower at once. The mission in Almia was drawing to a close, at long last… all he had to do was unplug the thing.

"I can't read which levers shut this down…" said the fighting psychic to himself, unable to read Human "…So let's just tear this thing apart!"

'Unplug' being metaphorical, of course.

Gallade used Swords Dance on himself and instantly two large blades of energy formed alongside his elbows in the shape of large bladed arms. With a roar, he then launched a Close Combat onto the machine. However, the generator was protected by an invisible force field, and so Gallade's attack hit the wall of light instead. Refusing to give up, Gallade swarmed the barrier with a flurry of punches, each boosted by his massive light swords.

The barrier cracked after ten seconds. The barrier cracked further after another ten. Then, finally, the energy barrier shattered altogether. Gallade took a knee from exhaustion. He was breathing heavily from the use of such a powerful attack- but now the barrier was gone. The generator was completely at his mercy.

"Alright! Here I-" but before the fighting psychic could finish his sentence the ground suddenly caved in. It was a clearly a trap, as the ground was unnaturally hollowed as if waiting for someone to step in the right position. He tumbled down several floors before reaching an empty room. The fighting psychic dusted himself off the instant he reached the ground and prepared to jump back up. However…

"Don't be so hasty, young warrior…"

A voice to his left. Gallade cautiously turned his head and barely avoided well placed kick, but neglected to see a second attack from his left, and so he was thrown back by psychic energies. Gallade stood back up and saw two opponents in front of him.

One was a man, roughly the same height as Gallade and in the same shape. He wore a suit of armor that hid his face and most of his body, but Gallade could tell that whatever pokémon it was, it was vaguely humanoid in shape. He had a metal mask that hid his facial features.

The same could be said about the woman, though she was in an elegant gown made from some sort of foreign material that seemed to deflect light and make her almost invisible. She too, wore a metal mask that hid her face. Both of them were green colored on their upper halves and white colored on their bottom halves.

"Wait! I know who you are!" Gallade suddenly realized "You're… you're…!"

"W-WE'RE TOTALLY NOT YOUR PARENTS WE SWAER!" shouted the two.

"DRAKE RHAPSODY FROM RAVE MASTER!" shouted Gallade at the same time.

A pause.

"No one will possibly get that reference, s- Gallade." said the male opponent.

"D-Does that mean you aren't Let and Julia in disguise!?"

"No!" replied the female "We, Gallade, are your worst enemies!"

"But Darkrai is still missing!" Gallade pointed out.

"For you see, we are known throughout the lands as… The Vile Couple." explained the armored male anyway "We are a happily married evil couple. My name is Mr. Vile, and this is my wife, Mrs. Vile. We have been roaming the lands destroying everything in our path and causing evil in search of you!"

"What!?" the fighting psychic was shocked by this revelation.

"You see, a long time ago we were the greatest and meanest fighters in all of Sinnoh! But then… your parents came and beat us! So as revenge we turned into mega evil pokémon, snuck up on them and captured them unfairly!"

"What!?" said an enraged Gallade, drawing his swords from his elbows "What did you do to them!?" he demanded.

"We made them eat jello!" grinned the sinister looking female, earning a gasp from Gallade "They are still alive for now… but we came to finish you off first! Just wait until they see their only son beaten into a bloody pulp…!"

"As if I'd let ruffians like you do such a thing!" shouted the green psychic dangerously, angry at this couple now "I will defeat you!"

"Be warned, we are as strong as your parents! You are but a fledgling, how can you possibly win!?" laughed the two at the same time.

"Because you are wrong." stated Gallade "I am not a child any longer. And I will prove it by defeating you!"

The two parties began their clash. Mrs. Vile instantly bended light to make herself invisible while her husband charged forth at Gallade and the two locked blades. From nowhere, a Psychic came and nearly struck Gallade had he not anticipated it. The fighting psychic swerved his body and the Psychic missed, instead hitting the male which got him knocked back a bit.

Immediately, Gallade slammed a Leaf Blade on the male's helmet, causing the ground to quake beneath them. A Focus Blast and several Dazzling Gleam's came from the hard to track Mrs. Vile aimed directly at Gallade, who used swift speed to dodge them. Them, surprisingly, he grabbed the woman and threw her over to Mr. Vile and the two collided. Trying to finish it all in a single blow, Gallade used an instant Swords Dance combined with a giant Psycho Cut slash which blew apart the entire wall, zooming through the building until it reached the sky.

However, Mr. Vile had upped his defenses and shielded his wife, making them both unharmed as the Psycho Cut was deflected "Impressive…"

"Hmph! Vile Viles!" Gallade addressed them smugly "You seem to be out of luck. For you see, I have seen your strange armors before!

As it so happens, my mother once received a light rifting dress by one of her colleagues for her wedding, and my father wears a set of armor for battle identical to the one I see before you! So you see… I am already aware of the extent you can do!"

The couple breathed nervously, hoping that the young pokémon wouldn't see through the ruse. Unfortunately, Gallade soon became suspicious after he had said that fact.

"Wait… how on earth did you come by these armors anyway? They are very expensive and hard to make…"

The two looked at each other nervously and nodded. Mrs. Vile answered: "After we kidnapped your parents we uh… stole these from them."

"YOU FIENDS!" roared Gallade "Those are very important items to my parents! I will take them back hastily!"

They clashed once again.

* * *

Mewthree scrubbed the toilets using her cleaning utensil- the infamous bar of soap that had much more power than a normal bar of soap. On the plus side it could literally clean everything with a wipe and never ran out.

The pink psycat could not help but think to herself about Absolix. She knew in her heart that her boss wanted what was best for her, and that he believed talking it out was the best solution. Mewthree however, did not want to talk.

She was afraid of what she might believe after the talk. She loved Xeno. She loved him with all her heart.

Mewthree gagged as the image of herself being impaled by her lover ripped its way into her conscious. She forced the thought away and went back to work. She loved Xeno, which was all that mattered. Once she was able to defeat Mewtwo, then they could be together.

The girl realized that the third toilet was cleaned. She stood up and glanced at the bar of soap to make sure it was going to be obedient for the next bathroom. Instead of its usual defiance, the bar of soap appeared to look at her with a hint of sadness.

"…what?" the emotionless psycat asked. No reply, only a continued look of pity.

"What do you know, you're just a bar of soap." Mewthree turned away. She opened the door and was met face to chest with Salamantra, the fire salamander pokémon.

"Mewthree-chan, we need to talk." stated the red lizard.

"Indeed we do. How many toilets are there!? And where are they, it takes me forever to find one!" said the annoyed psycat.

"Absolix-sama has instructed me-boku to tell you that you-chan must find the rest of the toilet-sans on your own. He also neglected to tell me how many there were."

"Great." the pink psycat began to float off but a clawed hand grabbed her forearm.

"We still need to talk." stated the man once again. Mewthree glared at him- she knew exactly what this was about. What confused her was why Salamantra even bothered to try and talk to her.

"If it's about… my lover, then don't bother."

"It isn't." said Salamantra instantly, which earned a surprised look from the young psycat "But even if it was, how would you plan on resisting me?"

Mewthree opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. There was a seal on her tongue and throat, as well as several on her forearm and the ground itself. She realized that she could not move.

"Let go of Soap-kun, you need to be trained." said Salamantra "These are fairly basic restraining seals, if you can't even break from these then you will be useless in battle. And as we are approaching the endgame, it is increasingly important for you to learn how to defend yourself."

Salamantra let her speak by releasing some seals "We have an endgame? And what is that?"

"Well if you had paid attention to our meetings you'd know-" but the fire lizard cut himself off, as he remembered that Mewthree wasn't allowed to attend their meetings. She had never sworn her loyalty to Absolix, thus she did not get the privileges of being a member: namely, the ability to know what their plan was.

"Oh… right…" sighed the fire type, "Well, come with me now."

Mewthree had no choice in the matter, so she followed the red giant across the small 'city' until they had reached Salamantra's quarters- which appeared to be a tiny chamber. Giant steel doors opened, and Mewthree was welcomed to a room that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. She tried to question the man about this but he talked faster:

"This is a highly advanced sealing technique used to bind subspace into a confined area, as well as to stabilize it. As you can see, it's highly economical." he said. Mewthree had to agree, even if she didn't quite understand what he had just said. She gazed around- it was an empty room.

An itch on her head, _"_ _For your first task, I want you to find the seals I've hidden in this room, when activated they will release all of my possessions. This will test your psychic dowsing abilities."_

Salamantra gazed at his empty room and spoke to her: "For your first task, I want you to find the seals I've hidden in this room, when activated they will release all of my possessions. This will test your psychic dowsing abilities."

Mewthree blinked. That was weird…

Nevertheless she began looking. Salamantra merely stood at the entrance, watching her carefully, perhaps with seals to study her more in depth. The psycat levitated across the room, left and right trying to find anything with her psychic powers. Suddenly, a tug of mental energy- Mewthree tried tugging back, and one of the seals activated. From a pocket dimension came a large sofa with a side stand that had pictures and a lamp on it.

"There's one." said Salamantra "Yet there are still more; keep looking."

Mewthree was feeling proud of herself, so she went back to looking. After a few moments of finding nothing, she curiously looked at the pictures on the stand. From the corner of her eye, she saw Salamantra with a beautiful looking Camerupt girl. Both were dressed in gold and other priceless jewelries.

"Who is that?" Mewthree blurted out before she even knew it. Salamantra closed his eyes and sighed. Quickly excusing herself, the psychic went back to looking.

"She was my wife." said the red fire lizard simply. He knew she would ask him that, after all he had carefully arranged it so that she would be forced to look at that picture first "The love of my life, if you will."

Mewthree gazed at Salamantra with a new look, as if they were now connected by something else now, not just master and student "Wife…"

"Yes. Would you like to hear about it?" Salamantra's tone implied that this was not a happy story. However, something compelled her to nod her head. Perhaps, just maybe, she would find a relationship clue for how to deal with… Xeno.

"Very well. Keep looking as I tell my story." said the man. Mewthree nodded and searched. Salamantra began his tale:

 _About two centuries ago, Salamantra was a king. Specifically, he was the king of the pokémon territory of Unova. Born a pure blood royal, Salamantra could have anything he ever wanted in his life._

 _One day there arose a significant problem in his kingdom: That he was going to be the last pureblood. All of the neighboring kingdoms began to be corrupt with an unknown disease- later to be known as inbreeding syndrome. Turns out, his was the last lineage that had not suffered from this illness yet. He had to continue the royal line but not with the other, seemingly mutated, royals._

 _They needed a solution, and they needed it within Salamantra's lifetime. Either they needed to sanctify blood, or figure out how to create new royalty. They turned to God, Arceus, for a solution, and she told them that their blood was mixed anyway, that there was objectively nothing special about it as far as she knew._

 _Unsatisfied with this answer, they told God that she was blasphemous, and that her father Archezeus, who had supported royal rule, would be ashamed. Thus they turned to other answers. Finally, after many years of thinking, an idea was proposed that could create new royal lines:_

 _It was called "The Ethical Selection"_

Mewthree listened intently.

 _"_ _The Ethical Selection" was a once in a lifetime event that could theoretically create a new royal woman, and thus a fit mate for Salamantra. Royals, you see, were the rulers of the world because they were the descendants of the Holy Twelve- the twelve who instigated a counter plan for when the world was in danger._

 _Many years ago, a meteor called the Daedalus was set to collide with Earth. A massive rock of that size and speed would have sent everyone on the planet back to before the Stone Age, if not wipe out all life on earth. The Holy Twelve did not want that to happen, so graciously they used their magnificent powers and repelled the meteor back into space, where it sits just outside of Mars to this very day._

 _The Holy Twelve had been chosen for this purpose. It followed then, that if such a calamity were to befall man again, only the chosen would survive. Hence the name of the plan: "Ethical Selection". The royalty would induce an artificial calamity to their town- just as before many years ago. Some would survive, and these people would have to be the chosen ones, ones who were fit to carry on royalty._

 _The plan was set into action as soon as possible. Not telling any of the peasants, the royals slowly built up an inescapable barricade without anyone knowing, helped immensely by Salamantra's sealing powers. As quietly as possible, they moved half their kingdom's populations, the ones they were sure could not be royalty, into another area._

 _When the time came, the royals unleashed their fury upon their kingdom. They used Draco Meteors, Rock Slides, Earthquakes, Avalanches, anything that could be considered a natural disaster was thrown onto the kingdom indiscriminately. After the chaos, there were five survivors of a previous 1,200 population. They were congratulated on their new royalty and entered the castle where they were given food, shelter and a new life._

 _One of these was Magna, Salamantra's would be wife. Over the course of several years they grew fond of each other. All too soon it was time for them to wed. They did, and the two spent many happy hours with each other. The fire types were good rulers as king and queen._

 _Ten years after their wedding, Salamantra woke up one night to find himself weakened by poison and stabbed in the throat. Suspecting an assailant, he found that to his shock, it was his wife that had done this._

 _She had been waiting all these years for her revenge. Her entire family was killed during the selection, as well as many of her close friends. For the past ten years, she, the newly created royals and the peasants had conspired behind the kingdom's back to overtake it, before another selection could occur again._

 _After the camerupt had said this, she launched a massive Eruption at him, and Salamantra was blown through the castle walls and into the ocean below. Not knowing how to swim and being a fire type, on top of being poisoned and stabbed, this was a death sentence for him._

 _Yet somehow, he survived. There was no doubt he was the strongest the royal family had ever seen, and his seals made clotting the wound and gaining oxygen from pure water helped, but it was a very close call._

 _Eventually he had learned that the new royals had taken power for themselves, and had killed every one of his family members. Upon learning this, Salamantra became infuriated beyond belief- after he recovered, he exacted revenge upon the kingdom, and single handedly destroyed it overnight. He let the one who he loved to death die by drowning, in the same way she had tried to do to him._

 _Now a king without a throne, he left the land seeking a new purpose._

At this point, Mewthree wasn't even looking for hidden seals. She was too shocked and disturbed.

"Perhaps we were wrong to perform the Ethical Selection." Salamantra mused "But on the one hand we were desperate. And on the other, the peasants did it to us all the same."

Mewthree was silent.

"One thing was certain though: I was naïve. I thought I loved her with all my heart, and she to me. But we never shared any experiences together those ten years, she always seemed too busy to be with me. She had never even said 'I love you' after the wedding." Salamantra continued.

"You…" Mewthree spoke softly.

"All those years I believed our love was real… but I was a fool." mused the fire lizard "She used me just to get what she wanted, and after she did, she discarded me like a tool."

"You… you planned this…" Mewthree glared at the fire lizard, tears in her eyes. Salamantra merely stared at her. Finally he asked "Did you learn anything form my story, Mewthree-chan?"

"Shut up."

"Has your Xeno ever once said-"

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

Mewthree launched a Psychic empowered Aura Sphere at the fire lizard, who merely watched it hit him. The psycat had run away crying, but Salamantra let her escape.

"I wonder if the truth would have been better?" mused the sealsmaster "That there was no selection, and that she was just a peasant Camerupt I had wanted to marry against my father's wishes?"

Salamantra sighed from his incompetence. No, giving his former wife a genuine reason to murder him probably softened the lesson. However his lie still didn't work- the girl was off crying somewhere and it was all his fault. Though perhaps, this too was for the best. "Mewthree…"

The fire lizard knew she needed some time alone. He walked out of his room and onto the open area, where the massive Giga was carefully watching a portal. Inori was on his shoulder.

"How goes it?" questioned Salamantra. Giga was staring intently at a portal that Inori created, and to his surprise, the rest of Neo Genesis were looking through the portal as well. The portal showed images of Darkrai, the rangers, Blake Hall and the massive battle occurring in Pueltown over the fate of the entire country of Almia.

"Things are getting interesting down on Earth." the ghost typed Inori spoke "It's like a movie down there. You should watch."

Salamantra gazed out into the open, searching for Mewthree but not finding her. He sighed and started to watch for a while.

* * *

Kairi was actually holding up against Blake's endless army. Each pokémon he sent at her became capture or knocked out with Aura Sphere before it could even touch her. It was funny- compared to Darkrai or training with the other member of Calestia, this was comparatively easy.

"What the hell!? Kincaid said you weren't a threat!" Blake Hall shouted nervously.

The blue clad girl fought off the evil army by looping, dodging, going Super Styler and even firing off pulsating attacks. The two were completely even in this fight… except for one big difference. Kairi was fighting alone, and she only had so much stamina. Eventually the girl would simply run out of gas and collapse from exhaustion.

She had to stall. She had to wait until Ruby found Gardevoir, Teleport her over here, and then they would stand a chance at beating Blake.

 _"_ _Come on Ruby… hurry!"_ Kairi mentally shouted, already feeling fatigued. Her silent prayer was answered, but not by Ruby. It was answered by a strange humming sound. As it got louder and louder, both she and Blake momentarily turned their gaze towards it.

In the direction of the sound was a massive, flying machine. It flew towards them at a high speed, then just when it was about to collide with the tower, flipped itself and used its massive arms and legs to grab the edges of the tower, anchoring it in place.

Kairi immediately recognized the ship, as well as the smug person who hopped out of the cockpit and grinned at them all.

"A party without me? You guys should be ashamed."

"Zero!" Kairi yelled. Suddenly, the attention was completely on him. Zero Mitsurashi, the world most feared human and the greatest dark ranger had now entered the playing field. He stepped onto the top of the tower in a calm manner, despite the fact that he was surrounded by hostile pokémon.

"Yo." he frowned at the brown haired ranger "You did a number on the flying parts of my ship. Took me a while to get the thing repaired. I even had to borrow parts from the Vientown base."

* * *

 **MEANWHILE**

Crawford was panicking "Why can't we get in contact with HQ or the field members anymore!?"

Suddenly he saw that there were wires and various other parts missing from the telephone.

* * *

"Zero… Mitsurashi…" even Blake, with all the power he had at his disposal, still feared this one man. Worse, there were rumors that he was even stronger than when he fought Darkrai months ago.

"I-It's about time you showed up." Kairi stammered, "So are you going to help us this time or just be a pain in the ass?"

"Nice tsundere act." said Zero monotonously.

"I-I'M NOT BEING A-!"

"I need you to take care of the Sinistrio." Zero said next. He gazed at Black Hall, especially the all too familiar golden armor "I'll get the golden armor off him. You take care of those three."

"Zero I…" the girl was ashamed, "I… can't even take out one of them. I couldn't possibly…" the last fight with Ice had left her beaten and broken. Without Ruby by her side, she would be alone against three of the most dangerous people to walk to the Earth…

The yellow haired man looked at her, straight in the eyes and sincerely said "Yes you can."

Blushing, the girl listened as Zero continued "You always hold yourself back because you think you aren't worth it. You beat Mary Tzu didn't you? You saved Oblivia, right? Then those jokers will be a piece of cake. All you need is some self-confidence."

"Zero…" Kairi whispered. The yellow haired man quickly pulled out some thin, cup shaped gels from his pocket "Here, these will give you self-confidence."

Kairi recognized them as pads.

"I DON'T NEED FREAKING FALSIES!" she screamed at him.

"That's the spirit." Zero smiled at her. He turned to Blake and readied two Stylers. Kairi paused, then ran away from him and towards the exit, where she shouted "Wait, Zero, how can you get the Golden Armor off of him!?"

"I just… can." said the man nonspecifically. Although Kairi was at the exit, she strongly considered stopping until she remembered Trueman's words: Zero was the reincarnation of the White Knight, the legendary enslaver of all pokémon. In his past life, he had CREATED that armor. And it was clear that his previous life had an effect on him, just how much was unknown. It was reasonable to assume Zero knew about its weak points.

"Zero…" the brown haired girl whispered to herself. Zero stared at her, waiting for her to leave. In a louder voice, she screamed "Good Luck Zero!" and ran down to confront the Sinistrio. Zero, alone, looked at Blake Hall suspiciously

"So, you haven't been moving for a while. Is talking a free action or something?" said the world's most feared human sarcastically. Blake merely grinned.

"Well, I was thinking of attacking you, but you are Zero after all." said the man "So I thought that, as long as you were distracted, I'd summon an army for you to fight."

Dozens of cries were heard above, below and to all sides of Zero. Heracrosses, scolepedes, greninjas and other pokémon swarmed him from every side. There had to be at least fifty pokémon, all high level captures and all looking at him with rage.

Zero grinned giddily "Now THIS is the real reason I came!" he shouted. Zero charged in to the fray with two Stylers "I'll catch any pokémon you can throw at me!"

Suddenly, Ruby and a pink Gardevoir warped into the room "Aloha guys, I brought my cuz!"

Zero captured them both without a second thought. In the span of two loops, Gardevoir was back to normal thanks to the mind reset powers of the styler "Huh? What? What am I…?"

"Oh no! Cuz!" said the shiny gardevoir worriedly. Now that Gardevoir's happiness had worn off, they no longer had a natural defense against Blake's golden armor.

"Oh well." shrugged Zero. He began laughing like a madman and captured everything in sight. Gardevoir and Ruby stood perfectly still, hoping he wouldn't capture them.

* * *

Gallade swung a Psycho Cut in the direction of the male Vile, knocking him off guard. The female Vile sensed an opportunity and launched a Psychic from her hands at Gallade, but he used another Psycho Cut to propel him sideways, causing her attack to miss.

"You first!" without remorse, Gallade sped towards the woman and launched a Close Combat at her. The many blows collided, but Gallade was cut short when the male Vile side kicked Gallade into the adjacent wall. The fighting psychic stood back up.

The female villain used her light rifting dress to become invisible, breathing heavily from the attack. The male villain stood in a solid stance, waiting to take Gallade on.

All three of them were become weary. The Viles combined were an equal match for Gallade- as their techniques were without peer and their ability to work together was flawless. Happily married evil couple indeed.

"I know what I must do…" from nowhere, Gallade suddenly pulled something unexpected- a gardevoirite. This stone was used to mega evolve someone of the gardevoir species. However…

"This may come as a shock to you…" said Gallade, smiling dangerously "But for whatever reason… I am the only Gallade on earth capable of Mega Evolution!"

"Actually that's false." the male Vile pointed out "Galladite have been discovered in Hoenn, so now all gallades can mega evolve."

"…what!?" said the shocked fighting psychic "We can mega evolve now!? I mean I know my parents were researching the subject but..."

Gallade looked at the stone in his hands "Wait, you said galladite?"

"Yes."

"…But… I mega evolved using a gardevoirite…"

"HUH?" questioned both Viles, even the female Vile had briefly reappeared to express her shock "But how is that even possible? Our research indicates that only specific mega stones can mega evolve specific pokémon! We tested it and it failed completely every time a different stone was used!"

"You… tested this…?" questioned Gallade. The Viles suddenly became nervous.

"Er, that is to say, um… when we beat up your parents we also stole all of their research findings! And then burned them! Because we're evil!"

"YOU FIENDS!" Gallade roared, "Prepare to face the wrath of my mega evolution!"

Gallade activated the mega stone. As was before, there was a great feedback from the stone with tried to repress his power. Pain went into every cell of his body, but he pressed on. He had been practicing this technique ever since he and Gardevoir retrieved the luminous gem.

All those hours had paid off. Despite the fact that he was using a stone that wasn't of his species, a pink and purple glow enveloped Gallade, eventually turning into a crystal which cocooned Gallade in raw energy- shattering mere moments later to reveal the transformed knight.

Steel shoulder pads emerged from his shoulders and extended to cover his collarbone in protective armor. A blue colored X appeared on his chest, while both forearms were now surrounded in giant gauntlets with blades for tips. His hair had turned grey with the blue spike still in the middle, and his forelegs were encased in armor not unlike that of the gauntlets.

With a simple motion, Gallade's giant hands transformed. One became smaller as it surged outward, become a mighty lance with its guard extending past his shoulders. The other grew larger and flatter, until it had transformed into a great shield.

The Viles were amazed, standing agape at this transformation.

"By the way, turns out I can do that." said Gallade smugly. He raised his giant lance and it one swift motion, pierced his opponents. The very air was cut as his technique pierced through the armor of the Viles, the wall behind them, the wall behind that, and surging that way until it hit the outer wall of the tower.

"It… can't be!" Mr. Vile's armor, which could withstand a missile blast without leaving so much as a dent in it, was suddenly breaking apart at his left side. He had only just barely dodged the attack.

"I missed?" Gallade questioned. Despite all of that training and learning that his hands could transform, it must be said that the mega evolution was still foreign to the fighting psychic. He hadn't worked out all the kinks at controlling this new body yet.

"Oh well. As you can see, my power cannot be surpassed by you!" roared Gallade at the Viles "The result is clear: you cannot possibly stand against me now!"

But to his surprise, Mr. Vile began laughing. It wasn't a maniacal laugh, it was a genuine sincere laugh. His armor was destroyed and yet Mr. Vile seemed to be… happy.

"How far you've grown…" muttered the Vile under his breath "Mrs. Vile. It's time we used… that."

His wife appeared from out of nowhere, "What? But no! We were only supposed to-"

"Do you see him?" said Mr. Vile. That was all that was needed. Mrs. Vile took one look at Gallade and saw strength greater than she had ever imagined.

"Yeah." she admitted "I see him. Let's hit him with our best shot, honey."

Mrs. Vile embraced her husband from behind, and her energy began to pour into his. Gallade tensed himself, wondering what was about to happen.

"Gallade, your Swords Dance technique… how many times can you use it at once?" asked the male Vile.

"I… twice, but it breaks my body. What does my father's technique have to do with this?" wondered the newly steel typed psychic.

"We are going to use our full power against you. I suggest you get prepared for that."

A Swords Dance erupted from the male Vile, prompting Gallade to utilize his own Swords Dance. Both blades were drawn and the energy from the Swords Dances made them enlarge right next to both the combatants. Giant swords of equal size appeared on both sides of the field. Until…

"Swords Dance!" Mr. Vile called out again, enlarging his energy blades to double their size with surprising ease. His body didn't even break down from the result.

Gallade was agape "What!? How can-"

"SWORDS DANCE!" and then, for the third time, the energy blades surrounding Mr. Vile's arms double yet again. Their energy was so immense that they hit through the ceiling, shocking the many grunts who were surprised to see blade arms cutting their nice clean floor.

"N-No way!" Gallade was in awe of the giant swords Mr. Vile had summoned "But how, he can't possibly control that amount of ener-"

The loving embrace of his wife revealed the secret. He was the wielder of the technique yes, but she was the one who stabilized him. By combing their powers, they had created a 3x Swords Dance technique, which had the effect of octupling the power of their next attack.

"Can you withstand this…?" Mr. Vile was sweating from use of the strong move. Gallade was wide eyed, but did not falter. He knew a second Swords Dance would be fatal now, so instead he concentrated on the metallic energy within him to strengthen his blade. When this occurred, the exchange finally happened.

Twin Psycho Cuts from either side met each other. The clash of the swords created a shockwave which destroyed the room they were in. Cracks appeared in the walls twenty meters away on all sides, eventually bursting the concrete base. Screams of the ripped air filled the room. It seemed as though the clash went on for an eternity, but in actuality only lasted a single second.

A single second later the victor was decided, because even after an octupling of attack power the knight in shining armor was greater still.

He slashed trough his opponents swords and straight to their armors, which protected them from a potentially fatal blow. The cut seared its way through the halls and through the walls, cutting straight through Altru Tower itself, causing a bit of the building to collapse in on itself at one end like the Tower of Piza. This caused some people to fall of the building, but they probably weren't too important.

Mega-Gallade stood as the victor, whereas the Vile couple were all but obliterated. They heaved on the ground, unable to do so much as stand. Thoroughly beaten, Gallade released his mega evolution's power, transforming him back to normal.

"As I have said." stated Gallade "You underestimated me, and because of that, I am the winner in this duel! I will have vengeance upon you for all that you've done to my parents!" the fighting psychic stepped over them.

"For you see… After all this time I've figured out who you really are!" exclaimed Gallade, "You are… luchadores!"

The Viles remained still.

"Therefore since you are luchadores, and since removing ones mask is the ultimate sign of dishonor in that culture…" reasoned the fighting psychic, "I shall now remove your masks to make you pay for what you have done to my parents!"

Gallade removed the masks and saw his mom and dad.

Gallade: "…"

Gallade: "…"

Gallade: "…WHAT THE CRAP!?"

"Hi son!" said Gallade's father a little sheepishly "Good job at beating us!"

"Yes, we knew you could do it!" said the mother "Really Gallade… we're so proud of you!"

"BUBUTBUTBUTBUTHOWWHY WHAT THE CRAP IS GOING ON!?" shouted their extremely confused son.

"Here, have a Teleport Gem!" Gallade's father threw him a shiny jewel which had the power to instantly warp anyone to a specific location. As soon as Gallade touched the gem, he and his parents disappeared from Altru Tower.

* * *

Pueltown had already been evacuated. Although the rangers could not outright accuse Blake Hall of doing anything, several hours ago they issued a fake emergency warning to all its denizens to get them elsewhere. As a result, the city had become a ghost town.

Malispite knew all of this, which is why when he punched Darkrai it shot him backwards with enough force to make a crater in the town.

Darkrai of course, got back up and shouted intelligible words at Malispite, flying in the air. The prince of darkness launched a Shadow Ball at the brown bat, but Malispite easily dodged it and slammed into Darkrai again with a Thunderpunch. His opponent seemed to short out, darkness energy leaking from him uncontrollably and bursting a few lightbulbs from the street lamps.

"Cresselia, you still in there!?" Malispite yelled to Darkrai. The prince of darkness screamed and summoned an all-encompassing Dark Pulse Attack that forced Malispite to use Protect "Guess she can't hear me..."

The brown bat studied Darkrai carefully. Mind control was one thing, but a berserk rage? That was entirely different. This was not Blake's doing, in fact it almost seemed as though Darkrai was doing this to himself.

Malispite narrowed his eyes. Darkrai, on the ground, was sweating. Cold sweat, a face of agony. He realized then that Darkrai was not angry- he was afraid. He not consumed by rage, but by fear.

Of what?

Darkrai tried to punch Malispite with a Shadow Punch attack. The resulting blow collided with the bat pokémon and caused a shockwave of compressed air to result, knocking over some trees that were farther away. Malispite caught the punch with one hand.

Malispite did not understand what was going on with Darkrai. He only knew one thing for certain:

"You're weaker!"

The brown bat kneed Darkrai in the stomach before his nightmares could take effect, sending him flying upwards, only for Malispite to fly faster and meet him in the sky, where he fired a Dynamicpunch straight down, causing yet another crater in Pueltown from Darkrai's impact.

"Damn. This is my rival?" Malispite could beat Darkrai with both wings tied behind his back at this level. Mind controlled, crazy Darkrai was much, much weaker than his normal self.

Darkrai yelled again, but this time when he got up a dark bubble surrounded him. It coated his skin, translucent, and fired a Dark Pulse in Malispite's direction. The brown bat had seen this before: Cataclysm. However, this Cataclysm bubble was much smaller than the one he saw during the Kurades incident. And, judging by the fact that Malispite was able to Thunderpunch Darkrai without any ill effects, much weaker as well.

"The hell is going on with you…?"

* * *

It was a pitch black sun that radiated pure darkness energy. Darkrai could not reasonably fathom how big it was, only that it was much bigger than him. He appeared to be a tiny dot by comparison, or at least he thought he was.

Not that this made any sort of logical sense- his brain was just representing Cataclysm and himself on the scale that he believed it to be. There was no physical space here, just representations. Although these thoughts were pointless, Darkrai found out very quickly that he needed to use whatever he could to distract himself and focus on the task at hand. Pointless musings helped a little.

The sun was originally smaller, the idea was that Darkrai had to grasp it and keep it from expanding any further. So far that wasn't working. Both hands pressed against the searing black flames at the edges of the sphere, Darkrai found himself being overpowered by his own nightmarish ability. The black sun was extraordinarily difficult to push back, Darkrai felt as though he had to exude all of his physical strength just to keep the thing in check.

Sadly that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that, as he touched it, sheer fear poured from the sun and into his body. The longer he touched the sun, the more his mind began to warp sending him horrific visions and sensations. He saw his friends dying painful deaths, he saw himself alone and helpless for all eternity in a split second, he saw himself as someone else with new fears, these and more nightmares flooded his brain every passing second.

It was tempting to let go and just release the black sun. But Darkrai knew the black sun for what it was: a Cataclysm attack. If he let go, or if he failed to contain the raging energy, in the real world he would cause another Cataclysm. Due to the fact that he was stronger overall, it would be a far worse Cataclysm than the one when Absolix had attacked their school.

It would give nightmares so bleak that not even Cresselia would be able to stop them. It would kill everyone by simple virtue of mind shock. A painful and simultaneously painless way to die at the same time.

So Darkrai would not let go. He would keep pushing back, screaming in pain, because he would conquer this monstrous power that lurked inside him. He would tame it, and instead of becoming a force that would doom them all, it would become the key component of his ultimate attack.

He yelled, he screamed, he cried tears whenever the fear became too much for him to bear. But the sphere had stopped expanding. In fact, it contracted just a little bit.

Gardevoir's throat was sliced. Darkrai pressed on. Absolix had destroyed planet earth and it was all his fault. Darkrai's stance weakened. Another horrific sensation, nightmares so intense that it penetrated all five senses. The thing, this black sun- it was pressing back.

Darkrai, to his horror, felt the thing getting bigger. The horror he felt fueled the black sphere, which caused it to surge outward.

* * *

As Malispite punched Darkrai a sudden surge of nightmarish power was released by the prince of darkness. All at once, Malispite found himself being stabbed in every location with poisonous needles, bathed in a river of lava and submerged underwater until his last breath gave out until he died.

He was only barely able to snap himself out of it, forcing his wings to flap and take himself away from the enlarged bubble, as far as he could. Cold sweat dripped down his face.

"Damn it, you're always causing me problems!" Malispite raged against the bubble, who turned to him and fired a Dark Pulse and several Shadow Balls. The attack was deflected by Malispite, who proceeded to shoot a Thunderbolt at him from long range, but it barely did anything.

Malispite could easily decimate Darkrai at this level, but that wasn't the point- the point was to contain Darkrai until they could save him. Yet, the brown bat was actually contemplating breaking every bone in Darkrai's body, if only to stop the nightmarish attack that was Cataclysm. He estimated five minutes at most before the thing was released.

"Hurry up Cresselia!"

* * *

Although it certainly wasn't her first time navigating through the recesses of someones mind, or indeed her own brother's mind, this time was very different than the others. Cresselia had found herself immediately in a maze with her brother nowhere in sight, and movement obscured in every path.

She was still the pokémon of good dreams, and so she frequently used her powers to phase through the walls of the maze to get closer to her destination, or so she hoped. The lunar swan had no idea where her brother was, or what he was doing.

One thing became clear as she explored the shifting maze: Darkrai's inner conscious, although suppressed by the Golden Armor's powers, was missing.

Suddenly, she spied something. From the corner of her eye a black figure lay at the end of the line- Darkrai! She quickly flew over to him. Darkrai was staring blankly at a wall, or perhaps something that she could not see.

"Darkrai!" said Cresselia "I'm here to get you out of here!"

Darkrai looked at her for a brief instant, but shifted his gaze back at the wall "I told him not to do it…"

"Darkrai…?" Upon closer inspection using her dream powers, she discovered this was not Darkrai: it was a fragment of his personality.

"You can't get him out of here." said 'Darkrai' "If you do… the worst nightmare will erupt from his body."

Instantly, images from Darkrai flooded her mind. Cresselia saw her brother talking to Cataclysm, telling him how much he needed to control said nightmarish power, then forcing it out to leash it once and for all. The final image was that of Darkrai struggling against a black sun, just a short distance away.

"Damn… I told him not to…" the fragment of Darkrai said. He turned to Cresselia "It's getting worse. He can't control it. You have to something!"

Cresselia stared at his fragment at first with fear. She cleared her throat and swung her neck up, now with a gaze of superiority "Of course I do. He's my stupid little brother. Big sister always has to save him from something!"

She phased through the wall. The Darkrai that was once there vanished. Cresselia zoomed through walls until she had reached her final destination, an expanding black sun a billion kilometers wide with her brother struggling to hold it back.

"Darkrai!"

* * *

On the ground in the garden beside Altru Tower, Deoxys fought the various machinations created by the infamous Toyman. He was just as clever as rumors had him out to be- Deoxys found herself at odds against such an opponent. Though an individual machine wasn't worth much against her, he had dozens. Worse, over time he was slowly giving them new data to fight her more efficiently.

"Superpower!" Deoxys, in an offensive mode launched a burst of fighting energy via a punch and shattered another one that he had been on for two minutes. Heaving, she quickly switched to speed forme as another robot tried to attack her "How many of these things do you have!?"

"Enough." said the masked man. From another robot he said "Your transformations are intriguing, Deoxys. To think I would be fighting a ribonian…"

She switched to defense mode and tanked several Coil Cannon attacks from three separate Toyman, then switched back to offensive and dealt some damage to all three with a Psychic attack. As she continued to dodge and hit the machines, Toyman spoke again: "However, if the rumors of your transformation are true, then that means your weakness is also true."

"Weakness?" Deoxys laughed. She used a Psycho Boost and destroyed one of the copies, leaving two more left "And what would that be?"

She was hit from behind by a Coil Cannon, and while in her attack mode. The damage was greater than normal and she was zapped back into the Altru tower, where she collided painfully which major electric shocks coursing through her body.

"What…?" Deoxys gasped, getting back up. She had enhanced her senses, yet was caught off guard?

No time to think, a second invisible attack hit her by punching her in the gut. She took it, but retaliated with a Shock Wave to her invisible assailant, she heard something fall down. As Deoxys wondered what this meant, the two other toymen she was fighting had vanished.

Deoxys was alone, except she actually wasn't.

"What's going on!?" Deoxys muttered to herself. Suddenly she was hit left and right by various attacks. Now in her defense mode, she erected barriers to protect herself from the invisible enemy. How they were doing this, and why she couldn't detect them was now the question, and she needed an answer fast.

It was actually a clever idea by the real Toyman. The machines were completely visible to the naked eyes, any person or pokémon could see the three copies plain as day. However, therein lay the solution to defeating Deoxys: she was an alien.

Her species saw in electrical vision, as opposed to wavelengths of electromagnetism. The machines had quickly been modified for stealth mode, then given an upgrade that let them run on not electricity, but the real Toyman's energy potential. These two combined made his robots invisible to the ribonian, and now he could win.

"She has given me more trouble than it's worth." said the real Toyman, inside his advanced armor. He had hidden himself underground just in case "But now I will defeat her, and then-"

A robot flew back, where it crashed into a tree and mildly exploded. Baffled, the real Toyman switched cameras, and Deoxys was back on the offensive- going up against his toys without any delay in her reactions.

"Impossible!"

Deoxys slammed into a robot with Meteor Mash, then followed up with a Superpower before blasting it away with Ice Beam. These three attacks in sequence were enough to defeat it. One left. She turned where she was nearly struck by an Ice Punch, but switched to defense mode and accurately Countered the attack.

The robot was disabled just for a moment, where Deoxys unleashed all her power in an enormous Psycho Boost attack that scorched the very earth, drilling a large hole in the machines side and defeating it on the spot. Deoxys huffed from exhaustion. The alien looked around- robot Toymen lay everywhere, but none were active.

"You didn't bring enough…" said Deoxys in between breaths.

It was now that Toyman managed to get a closer look at her body- Deoxys' eyes had changed color, gained irises and rudimentary measurements of other changes indicated the ability to see color vision. The clever girl had used her shapeshifting powers to defeat his trump.

"Hmph…!" said Toyman angrily "I'll have to do this myself. I'll even use my curse if necessary, no matter how much I consider her my friend!"

A pause. The purple psycat shook his head. Where did that come from? Since when has a ribonian ever been his friend? Dismissing it, Toyman inside his advanced robot exoskeleton gave the command and the ground collapsed above him, letting him leap out and surprise Deoxys.

"Congratulations, only one other pokémon has ever seen my advanced suit." said the new machine. It was three times bigger than his common machines, black in color, and many times more powerful. Deoxys readied herself by going back to defense forme.

Toyman launched a beam of energy at Deoxys, who absorbed the attack and reflected it towards the skies. By then Toyman was on her and tried to claw at her stomach, succeeding and sending her body flying to the side.

However in midair she transformed into her normal forme and regained control, switching back to speed forme and flying towards the giant robot with a Superpower in her fist. Toyman met her fist with a gigantic, electrically charged one and they collided with each other. A shockwave of power erupted and the two were flung back. Deoxys switched to attack forme and tried again with Superpower.

"No you don't! Thunder Wave!" a surprise Thunder Wave attack erupted from the front of the robot, catching Deoxys by surprise and briefly paralyzing her for one and a half second- all the time Toyman needed to fire a Coil Cannon at her.

With her weaker defenses, the Coil Cannon did massive damage to the ribonian. Nonetheless, she quickly got back up- bruised and bloody- and switched to her normal forme and shouted "Recover!", the healing attack instantly rejuvenating her body back to optimal health.

"Those form changes are annoying…!" Toyman shouted at her "Damn, you really are a Shifter… the most powerful of your species…"

"Yes." Deoxys replied "If I couldn't even do this much, I'd never be able to face my mother in battle."

"Oh, is that the plan?" Toyman subtly began to manipulate electronics within his suit, distracting her with his words "You want to challenge a being on the level of Arceus to do what, pray tell? Make her love you again?"

"This is for peace between our planets!" The girl shouted back "My mother is too stubborn to listen to reason, she has to be stopped by me!"

"And I suppose once you defeat her, that will get rid of all the surprise attacks your people have done on earth?" replied Toyman calmly "You are naïve. Maybe since you have amnesia, it's easy for you to forget. But others don't."

 _"_ _I know you all aren't old enough to remember the things they've done to us…But being friends with… with their kind is an impossibility!"_

Deoxys cringed at the painful memory. Yet, she did not falter "I'm aware of the things my planets has done. But they don't care."

 _"_ _She's trying to make peace between us. We trust Deoxys with our lives, and she would do the same for us."_

"Maybe nobody will forget, but as long as things remain the same between us, our kinds will never meet eye to eye. I'm fighting the chance that in the future, Earth and Ribos are connected by more than just a faulty spatial network."

"It will never happen." Toyman said "We killed two billion of yours, you've killed a million of us. We will always be at war, that's how it has to be."

"Wrong. Nothing says that is how it should be." Deoxys began to charge up her power. Toyman merely glared at her, but he was close to making the final adjustments…

"By the way I can see in electronic vision." Deoxys mused "Didn't you just try to use that fact against me? And now you think you can secretly alter your dead robots to self-destruct and trap me in it?"

Toyman widened his eyes and tried to speed up the final adjustments, blowing all his scattered suits prematurely but Deoxys was already in her Speed forme and flew over to the blind spot of his attack- right above him. As countless suits exploded around them, Deoxys used all her power to deliver a massive Psycho Boost attack to Toyman's suit, cracking it open and even creating a crater where he stood from the sheer force.

The suit was split in half and most of it was broken. Cursing his luck, the real Toyman ejected himself from the suit.

"Damn… so you broke my advanced suit."

It was a voice Deoxys knew all too well. The fog from the explosions hid his body, but Deoxys could see the shadow of the man she loved.

"I'll tell you what I told Darkrai: it doesn't make me any weaker. In fact, it actually makes me stronger. Now that I'm out of my suit my curse will take effect and you'll be unconscious in minutes."

"No… No…" Deoxys stammered "It can't be…!"

A purple psychic typed man stepped out from the smoke. He gazed at Deoxys with a displeased face "You can't defeat me, Ribonian. I'm much stronger than you realize."

Deoxys used every bit of her shapeshifter powers to enhance her senses to make sure she wasn't being deceived. This was the real Toyman, the pokémon she had been fighting for the last twenty minutes.

"You… no…" Deoxys tried to put words into her feelings.

"Your shapeshifting powers are impressive, Deoxys, but they mean nothing now. You will fall to my curse, Deoxys. For you see…

I'm your worst nightmare." snarled Mewtwo.


	5. V: Takeover

**\- Part Five: Takeover -**

* * *

"What happened?" wondered Gardevoir, who could not remember the last forty minutes or so.

"Cuz, you're back to normal!" Ruby shouted, though not from excitement. Gardevoir was once a deterrent to all forms of mind control due to emanating a surplus of happiness from her person. After taking in all the happiness from the broken luminous crystal, she had become the dreaded pink reaper- and a valuable asset to fighting Blake.

Unfortunately, Ruby had found Gardevoir and Teleported her back to Kairi, who she thought was still on top of the tower. Instead they found Zero and startled him, causing him to use his styler to capture Gardevoir and reset the psychic type back to normal.

For the next ten minutes they had watched Zero suppress Blake's army with amazing precision and speed. Although they wondered if they could help him, Zero seemed to be annoyed.

"Why are you two still here…?" Zero questioned. He looked back at Blake, who was grinning. The pink reaper was no more, and he had surrounded the group with 30 or so powerful pokémon. Zero turned back to Ruby and spoke through his Styler "Kairi's down below, fighting the Sinistrio! Go help her already!"

The shiny gardevoir understood the situation and propelled herself down the stairs. Gardevoir asked where Darkrai was, but Zero did not know. He told her to go back down and help in any way possible, because here she would be mind controlled.

"In fact, better idea." Zero said to her "Go find him yourself!"

Zero sighed and pulled out his Stylers, two of them. He was going to start with the Two-Styler method first, but Zero guessed that he would have to work his way up to the Eight-Styler method. Nevertheless, he had to be extremely careful when using all eight of his Stylers- the longer he remained there, the more memories of his past life came flooding in, and the closer he became to being the White Knight. He couldn't let that happen, not again. Zero steeled himself and got into a fighting stance.

"Twin Styler Method: Twin Circle Prison!" in a single technique by summoning two circles, Zero's Stylers occupied a large area and instantly knocked out all pokémon in their range. Blake's army was reduced to a mere dozen by the end, stunning both him and Gardevoir.

"How… how the hell can you be this strong!?" screamed Blake.

"Because unlike you, we fight our loved ones." Gardevoir spoke softly "This is a power that you, who only cares for himself, would never understand!" Nervously, the female psychic then added "On a completely unrelated note um… does anyone know where Darkrai is?"

Zero raised an eyebrow "Completely unrelated?"

"WHY WOULD I FALL IN LOVE WITH DARKRAI HE'S MY BEST FRIEND THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE!" shouted Gardevoir a bit too loudly, red as a tomato berry.

Zero sighed and ignored the girl's emotional confusion "Whatever. He's not here. Now listen…"

The ranger eyed Blake's pokémon, which were inching towards them. At the same time, Blake was gathering even more thanks to his golden armor "Gardevoir. Support me from a distance, that way the Golden armor won't affect you. As for me…" Zero relayed his plan: "I need to get close to him. If I can just get to him, then I can shut the golden armors power off."

 _'_ _And hopefully that will be it.'_ he said silently to himself "So I need you two to beat up as many of these guys as you can while making a path for me. I'll do the same."

"Okay…" Gardevoir began to form some Light Screens for shields around them. Zero inched closer to the center, the two man team was ready to take on an army of mind controlled pokémon.

Except then the unthinkable happened. Just as Gardevoir stepped in front to gauge distance, the ground directly under her feet collapsed and she fell through- with a Sticky Web sealing the entrance and another string causing a steel beam to jam itself into the newly made hole.

Zero shouted "What the f-!"

At that instant the Dim Sun leader's pokémon army broke out and attacked all of them. Blake Hall didn't care what it was that took Gardevoir away, all he knew was that it was two on two hundred. Zero's Stylers became a blur of motion as he captured and recaptured pokémon that came after him.

The world's most feared human used all of his skills, slowly making a path towards Blake Hall. Blake realized they were coming after him, so in one quick motion he summoned a Staraptor and took flight.

Blake Hall was about to shout his victory was certain, when Zero interrupted with a mad grin "Idiot…" he smirked. Zero captured a few more pokémon, now already on the Four-Styler Method, but sent one of them directly at Blake.

The fourth one, an ice type Styler, shot its Ice Beam attack at the Staraptor Blake was on. The flying pokémon dodged but fell into Zero's trap: as it dodged, it went straight into the Styler's line of sight. Because of this, two loops later the bird pokémon was freed and dropped Blake instantly.

Of course, Blake tried to summon more pokémon to get him before he fell into the tower, but Zero captured them all with ease unleashing his secret weapon:

"Eight-Styler Method!" in the instant Blake fell, his concentration broke which left the mind controlled pokémon with no orders for approximately half a second. During this time Zero activated all eight of his Stylers and sent them to capture all 200 pokémon at the same time. The attack was successful, with a combination of looping and elemental attacks, Blake's army turned into nothing and the pokémon once under his control flew away.

Cursing at Zero, Blake hit the tower's top floor with pain. The black haired man tried his hardest to get up but was suddenly lifted into the air and held in a full nelson by his own dad, rending the evil man immobile.

Blake called upon any pokémon in the area that were available but Zero was simply too strong- the instant the golden armored man summoned one Zero had already captured it. Grinning manically with a single, glowing purple eye, Zero made it to Blake without any effort. The golden armored man shook with fear as Zero came close to him.

"Well, well, well… that's all?" he asked rhetorically.

"You, you're a monster!" Blake yelled.

"Please spare me, fool. You aren't even using the Golden armor correctly!" Zero laughed. He suddenly cringed, then faced Blake with a more serious expression, but his eye was still glowing.

 _'_ _Get it together Zero…don't let him control you…!'_

 _Control you? No. I'm you. I'm me. That's all there is to it! No one controls me but me, that's how it works._

 _No… shit… how do I shut off… my armor…?'_

Images flashed in Zero's eyes. They were of his past life 600 years ago. A white haired human with purple eyes hit a piece of gold with a molten hammer, pouring some of his natural energy into every hammer strike. He cackled.

Next, the man had completed the armor. The White Knight activated his golden armor, turning it from a golden color to a pristine white. Zero concentrated on this: The man had activated a special seal located… located…!

The head! The inside of the head piece of the golden armor, that's how it activated. The headpiece was designed to only respond to the White Knight's thoughts. However, since Zero was his reincarnation…

The blonde haired man Stole Blake Halls' head piece and put it on himself. The instant he did, his first immediate thought was to steal the rest of the pieces and to finish what Blake had started, only with HIM as ruler of the world. However with some effort, Zero brushed these thoughts aside. He thought for the golden armor to shut off.

The golden armor became dulled golden color. It was now ineffectual. Zero discarded the helmet, his job done.

"Wh-what the-!?" Blake Hall panicked. His mind control was gone, the armor had been shut off "How did you do that!?"

"Reasons." Zero's left eye turned back to green. He looked left and right- no pokémon there to attack them. The man gazed towards the stairs- during the time that he had initiated his plan, ten minutes had passed since Kairi went down to the Sinsitrio's room.

"Kairi…" Zero muttered. It was quite down there.

Too quiet.

Zero's attention was turned to a humming noise. It was the computer that Blake was recently at. A message read from it: that the tower would activate in exactly 10 minutes. He became suspicious.

"What is this thing?" asked the human.

* * *

Just as Ice was about to go upstairs and complain that no one had come to fight them, who did appear but Kairi, the ranger he had beaten previously. At the foot of the stairs leading to the next level the girl appeared breathing heavily. Before Lavanna could question what she was doing here, Kairi answered for her:

"I'm your opponent!" she announced to all three of them.

There was a brief pause before Heath let out a chuckle. Unfortunately he only got halfway through his chuckle when Kairi launched an Aura Sphere at him, to which Heath quickly blocked with his own Styler.

Before Kairi even came down to this floor she had already realized she would be taking on three of the strongest dark rangers in history. She couldn't just rely on brute force to win, she needed plans. The more the better.

Luckily she had a couple.

"Aura Sphere!" Kairi knew that the rangers would react to her presence by summoning their pokémon. Which is why the instant they took out their poke balls, Kairi hit them all with three separate Aura Spheres, knocking them out of the way.

"Oh, well look at you." Ice said sarcastically "Frost Breath."

Ice's ice type Styler suddenly launched a hailstorm of cold towards the brunette. Kairi quickly used her Styler to form a quick shield which blocked it long enough for her to leap out of the way. As she did, Heath and Lavanna got their poke balls back.

"No!"

In an instant the two unleashed all three of their pokémon: A magmortar for Lavanna, an electivire for Heath, and Ice's garchomp from before returned. The situation turned dire as it became 6 versus one. Desperation high, without waiting for the Sinistrio to claim even more of an advantage Kairi took out a second Styler.

She had no idea if the psychic type Styler she borrowed from Erma would be usable. Only three people in history had ever managed to control two Stylers at once, all of them famous and powerful. Kairi on the other hand was an average girl from an average town with ordinary skills. Simple logic dictated that her activating two Stylers was an impossibility.

Which is why the Sinistrio were surprised when she managed to do it.

"Twin… Styler… Method!" Kairi shouted, levitating two Stylers in the air at the same time. She willed them to zoom towards the Sinistrio and ready her attack.

Lavanna moved first, using a Heat Wave from her magmortar to try and melt the Stylers, only to see that the psychic one had Reflect as its move. With the barrier the Heat Wave did nothing and several dozen Aura Spheres were launched at the magmortar. Sensing this as an opportunity, Heath's electivire launched a deadly Thunderbolt directly at Kairi while Ice's garchomp circles around. Kairi recalled her two Stylers, sending them both into super mode as a result, and blocked both attacks.

However this proved to be a mistake, as creating a shield around her let Heath and Ice circle towards the girl. Commanding their pokémon to use Wild Charge and Outrage respectively, Heath and Ice used their Stylers to bombard Kairi's shield as well. The girl had no time for retaliation and resorted to using her Stylers super speed to block all four separate attacks, until Lavanna came in with her magmortars Flamethrower and made it even worse.

Kairi could not defend against all six attacks at once and her guard broke down for just an instant, allowing Ice's garchomp to strike her with a Dragon Claw attack in the back, killing her in one blow.

But just before Kairi could be struck, a white and blue pokémon warped in and delivered a concussive Psychic to the unaware garchomp, which was thrown back straight into the opposing wall. As the garchomp wondered what had just happened, it was hit with an enormous Focus Blast, which dealt so much damage that it got knocked out.

"No way!" said Ruby angrily, "None of you even think about it!"

"Ruby!" Kairi had never been more grateful to see her. The two remaining pokémon and the dark rangers retreated just a few steps back. Ruby smiled at Kairi, then glared at the dark rangers. The brunette ranger stood up with renewed confidence.

It was now 5 vs 2. The numbers still weren't very good but this time around there was one crucial difference:

With Ruby at her side, Kairi could do anything.

"Ruby! Use a Blast Burn on the ground!" without hesitation, the shiny gardevoir shot a Focus Blast towards the ground, which shocked all of the Sinistrio. The ground, which was already unstable to begin with, cracked open and with a little coaxing from Kairi's Styler to trip them, Heath and Ice fell into the cavern.

Lavanna immediately realized that Kairi was trying to separate them, so she had her magmortar fire off pulses of Flamethrower at Kairi and Ruby. Kairi acted fast and dodged most of the rounds while Ruby shot Psychics at the rest to deflect, all while the brunette ranger fired off dozens of homing Aura Sphere aimed at the red haired girl.

The Sinistrio girl used her Styler to form a shield, protecting her from Kairi's Aura Sphere, but the impact blurred her vision. The brunette ranger knew this and homed in, tripping up the magmortar with her psychic styler while Ruby went in for the final blow, knocking the thing unconscious. After this, Kairi turned her attention to Lavanna, who had recovered. She immediately used a Heat Wave to blow Kairi away, but it was caught short when she was shot in the back painfully.

"Wh-Wha!?"

Another shot and Lavanna had taken too much pain to remain conscious. Kairi's fighting styler, which had been secretly trailing its way behind Lavanna the entire time, finally returned to her.

"One down!"

Just as she said this an Earthquake occurred, which knocked Kairi off balance and caused bother her and Ruby to fall. They tried to grab each other's hands, but suddenly Ruby was tackled by the electivire, sending her to the unknown.

Kairi fell to the floor, and while bruised, got back up as soon as she fell. She was face to face with Ice and his garchomp.

"Dragon Claw!" the dragon zoomed towards Kairi, who put up a shield to block the hit, then retaliated by looping around the thing once, but it struck again and grazed Kairi- ripping her shirt and just barely missing her ribs.

"Aura Sphere!" dozens of blue spheres launched from Kairi, but Ice deflected them by launching his Frost Breath at them, sending the aura blobs off course and making them all miss.

"Garchomp! Outrage!" a powerful dragon attack like that would break Kairi's shield in one hit- so she launched an Aura Sphere directly at the garchomp's legs, which caused it to trip and it used Outrage on the floor, once again causing it to break and the dragon fell through.

However, Kairi was then stricken by a horribly cold wind from Ice's Frost Breath. She fell to her knees and formed a shield around herself. Ice grinned as he walked next to her "Well what's this!? We're in the same position as before! So what are you going to do this time, wait until Zero rescues you or something!?"

Kairi fought back bitterly, inching her hidden psychic Styler closer to Ice all the while. Just before she struck with it, Ice pulled out a gun, used his own Styler to stop hers, and shot it three times with precision. Her psychic Styler broke and Kairi gaped. Ice grinned like a maniac, and his garchomp finally crawled out of the hole it dug.

"It looks like no one's come to save you after all… too bad.

Garchomp! Outrage!"

The dragon type charged at Kairi with a powerful aura of draconic energy. That one hit would have meant Kairi's demise, and as such she knew she only had one chance to do things right. As the garchomp charged at her, Kairi stopped using her shield and aimed all that she had at Ice.

Summoning every bit of her power she launched all the Aura Spheres she could muster at the garchomp and tackled the surprised blue haired male. In an instant she knocked him to the ground, the blue dragon missed her and hit a wall, and Kairi took the gun from Ice's hands and pointed it straight at him.

Ice was at first shocked by this turn of events, but grinned "You wouldn't have the guts to shoot me."

Kairi shot the gun at the floor right beside Ice's head to get him to shut up. She grabbed his Styler, threw it to the ground, and shot that into small pieces before Ice could think of a plan. Then, she destroyed the gun itself with an Aura Sphere.

Ice pushed Kairi off of him the instant she looked away, but Kairi tripped him and launched a full blow Aura Sphere to Ice's face, then captured his order-less garchomp for good measure. She looked down at her handiwork: the ground dragon was leaving the area, Ice's Styler was destroyed, and Ice himself had been knocked out.

She had beaten them, despite the low odds.

"Heh… heh…" Kairi laughed to herself. Once upon a time she was an average ranger chasing after a crush. Now she was taking on dark rangers and winning.

"I did it! I did it!" she screamed to the heavens. The girl then realized- what had happened to Ruby? She ran to another corridor, dodging debris along the way and found the room her partner was in- but her worry was unfounded as the shiny gardevoir had already dispatched both Heath and his electivire. Both were unconscious, and Ruby was panting heavily.

"Ruby!" she hugged her partner "Hey… we did it. We took down three of the strongest dark rangers of all time. How's that feel?"

Ruby just smiled. Kairi helped her up and explained the situation to Ruby: she would have to use her psychic powers to keep all three of these guys in an unconscious state. The female gardevoir agreed, and after Kairi had gathered all three, she placed mental locks on them that would keep them in a coma-like state until and unless they were released using psychic power.

"Good. Now we'll have to go back up and see how Zero's doing…"

"Oh yeah, that way you can show off how awesome you've become!"

"I-It's not like that… mostly…" Kairi murmured. Suddenly she realized something: their battle had destroyed the stairs. Two flights of them in fact. Ruby could only Teleport herself, which meant they had to get up the hard way.

"Can fire types learn Rock Climb?" asked Kairi sarcastically.

"I'll try!" said Ruby enthusiastically.

* * *

The Rangers had been on standby for the past hour. They were given strict instructions by their leaders- first Calestia would infiltrate Altru Tower and retrieve the luminous crystal, then the Rangers would serve as backup to take out the rest of the Dim Sun grunts. Their special top Rangers would join Kairi after the last luminous crystals was obtained, then all of them would ride to the top on flying type pokémon and shut down the shadow crystal.

They were supposed to have been given the signal to invade by Cresselia. However, one hour had already passed and there was no sign of the signal. The rangers with binoculars and scopes could only see that the tower was being attacked, but that was all. There was no sign that Calestia had retrieved the final luminous crystal.

Two top rangers held the remaining two luminous crystals in each of their hands. Beside them were two staraptors, ready to fly at a moment's notice.

The intercom came to life _"_ _It's been an hour. What is the situation out there?"_

Another ranger spoke into his headpiece "Lots of battles have been occurring. Still no sign from Calestia on the luminous crystal."

A pause from the radio. The other ranger nervously checked his watch: it was already 11:30. The tower would be completed at midnight, where it would activate. The radio came back _"_ _We have no time left! Invade the tower, retrieve the final crystal!"_

"Yes sir!" said the radio ranger. He quickly relayed orders to all the teams. Within a few seconds, all were ready to mobilize. With cries of battle, they rode their pokémon and began the infiltration mission. As they got closer and closer to the tower, an ominous feeling came over the rangers. It wasn't until they got much closer did they realize one such battle was taking place just outside of the tower's entrance.

A voice suddenly yelled at them "NO! STOP!" from the front of the tower, where two pokémon were fighting. The rangers ignored this voice, as there was simply no time to waste when all of Almia would be under Blake's spell in less than half an hour.

But then, as they got closer and realized it was Deoxys who had yelled, the humans and pokémon clutched their heads in pain. The entire ranger army fell down screaming from the pain. The purple psycat who had caused this merely watched them all suffer.

Mewtwo eyed the two luminous crystals, which the top rangers had dropped…

* * *

Deoxys stared in horror: the remaining humans and pokémon who had seen their comrades topple over began to run the opposite direction. Their plan was ruined; advancement any further was rendered impossible thanks to Mewtwo.

"Mewtwo! What are you doing!?"

"Funny, that's the second time I've been mistaken for him." wondered Toyman amusingly "My powers must be making you delusional."

"Mewtwo, stop hurting them!" yelled Deoxys now very afraid. Toyman quickly summoned an arm part and used it to blast her with electricity. The blow connected and Deoxys was sent backwards, then paralyzed to the tower due to electrical effects. Toyman used this opportunity to fire his signature move, Coil Cannon, straight at her heart.

With a loud boom the tower and Deoxys were blasted with an attack of railgun-like proportions. The alien fell over onto the ground and the purple psycat observed "No, I'd better make sure… Coil Cannon!"

A second blast was fired at Deoxys but this time she switched to speed forme and dodged it completely, taking refuge in the skies. It was at this moment did she realize that even though she used Recover, her wounds hurt more than they ought to.

Unlike Darkrai, who was a dark type and thus had zero experience interpreting different psychic waves, the red and blue alien was able to discover the constant emission of psychic energy from Mewtwo's body. Upon turning on her receptors past their normal limits, Deoxys quickly discovered that this psychic field, approximately 30 meters in dimeter, was able to cause those in it to experience pain.

"Mewtwo…" Deoxys cried. His instability had given rise to this new ability, as well as this new personality. This much was obvious. Still, the girl could hardly believe it no matter what the evidence said. With fear, she charged.

"That shape shifting ability is becoming bothersome." scowled Toyman. He summoned five more Coil Cannons and fire them at the charging Deoxys, all of them missing due to her incredible speed. She rammed into him at full blast and knocked him out of the way. As she did, a feeling of pain became apparent throughout her entire body.

"So this is it…" Deoxys realized upon witnessing his ability first hand. The ability to cause pain receptors to fire off even if the subject was uninjured was truly a frightening power. The humans across from her didn't stand a chance against it- not even their partner pokémon were able to withstand the pain.

The alien landed on the floor just as Mewtwo got back up. The two psychics stared at each other, contemplating their next move. Deoxys in particular had to carefully consider her next attack. After all, she was fighting the love of her life. Not only that, but the pain was getting worse by the second.

"Do you see them in pain, Deoxys?" questioned Toyman, nodding to the direction of the fainted humans and pokémon "This is why I must remain a solitary existence. I only bring pain to those who are near me, no one is an exception although one has tried."

Deoxys suddenly perked up "One has tried? Who was that…?"

The Toyman shifted slightly, as if he was uncomfortable with the memory "Ah yes… Darkrai is on your team, isn't he? He was the one. He deluded himself into thinking he would survive my curse and tried to 'become my friend' or whatever."

"And? What happened?" questioned Deoxys, a plan forming in her mind even as her whole body ached. Mewtwo looked away from her

"You can see the result, he was captured."

"But did he survive your curse?"

"No he didn't." Toyman said forcefully "Even if… even if…" the image of Darkrai, still standing despite the pain he was in was burned into his memory. The dark type had tried his hardest to make Toyman see that the impossible could be defied, and subsequently defeated him to prove it.

"Then…" Deoxys spoke up "If I could survive your curse… would you stop fighting me?"

"No!" Toyman sneered at her, robotic parts forming together behind him "You can't do it! I am a curse! My existence is false and there is no way to remedy it!"

Toyman didn't even notice that his sentence made no sense, he just fired several Coil Cannons at Deoxys. She dodged four, but the last one hit her. At this point the pain was starting to override her other senses and cause her to make mistakes, to which the Toyman noted and began firing off Flash Cannons and Coil Cannons and whatever else he could make at her.

Mewtwo however, was still stricken. He felt as though he was on the verge of remembering something, something important. Why was he mistaken for Mewtwo twice? Why did Deoxys and Darkrai try so hard to befriend him?

A noise to his left while Deoxys dodged his lasers. It was the Ranger union, who had just restored power to their radios. Being that he could sense electrical signals, he was able to easily decipher what they were saying.

One line in particular _"_ _Deoxys is fighting Mewtwo"_ made his hairs stand on end. Why did they think Mewtwo was fighting Deoxys? It was Toyman. He was Toyman. How could they be affected when they were outside his curses range? What was going on!? Why was Deoxys getting hurt!?

He didn't even notice that he had stopped firing his attacks at his opponent. Toyman, at this point, was simply gaping at nothing as questions and Mewtwo's memories flooded his mind. Deoxys, who was in defense forme since a while ago, noted this and seized her chance.

The pain flooded her every being, but she worked through it. With a cry, she began to rapidly transform her cells at a blinding pace. The cry alerted Toyman to the alien's shapeshifting powers. With a simple look he had deduced her move.

"You… you think you can transform… into something that won't feel my curse?" stated the mechanical master "FOOL!"

He launched a Psychic at her, a massive, Mewtwo-esque Psychic that blinded everything in the general area and reduced it all to dust. Deoxys used her own psychic powers to make a barrier and hold herself steadfast in face of Mewtwo's onslaught.

"IT WON'T WORK! IT CAN'T WORK! WHY CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND, DEOXYS!?" at this point, Mewtwo's insanity had reached its peak, because he had sensed that Gardevoir was fighting someone at full strength. No, why should that matter? He wasn't Mewtwo, he was Toyman right!? Right!? No, he had to kill Absolix, then he could be a real beingbutthenhehadtogetmoneyfromkillingDeoxys NO HAD TO KILL-

NO

NO!

"AAAGGHHH!" Mewtwo cried in pain, sending psychic shockwaves in all directions as well as the pain aura. Everything encompassed by his massive psychic breakdown was destroyed, shifted, moved around, rearranged at the molecular level and even completely vanished from sight. He couldn't tell who he was, or what he was doing. All he knew was that… that…

Deoxys suddenly punched him with all that she had, ending his attack and sending the psycat flying into the dirt several dozen meters away.

Mewtwo lay on the ground, a vacant expression on his face. He noticed Deoxys floating up to him and he looked at her. She was completely healed thanks to Recover, and what's more, she wasn't in any pain.

"You… what did you do…?"

"I had to rearrange my entire body." said Deoxys "I transformed away every single nerve cell in my body to stop responding to whatever pain signals my brain tells it. As an additional countermeasure, I knocked myself out and installed a second brain in my head, a simple one, which can carry out only a few specific commands, such as telling you this."

It was impossible. His curse was completely penetrative. Yet she. She had.

"I have one other message." with all the love of the real Deoxys, she hugged him on the ground "Please, come back, Mewtwo."

He remembered everything in that instant. All those times as his alternate personality, as well as all the times he was Mewtwo. At this moment, he could recall everything. Including what he had done to Darkrai. All at once, Toyman remembered that he was Mewtwo.

"Deoxys…!" Mewtwo hugged her back. Tears poured from his eyes now that he had remembered. He sent Deoxys a simple psychic signal, which awoke her real brain. She blinked at him before talking, asking him if he was fine now.

"I'm me again." said the crying psycat "I… I had done such things…! I gave Darkrai to them!"

"It's okay!" Deoxys said forcefully "We can work together to get him back! We can still fix this…!"

Her body was close to his and Mewtwo couldn't be any happier. That she would still love him, despite all that he was and all that he had done had brought Mewtwo the happiest moment in his life. Mewtwo kissed Deoxys where her lips might have been if her species had evolved any.

Time slowed down. At first Deoxys was confused, until she had remembered that pokémon on planet Earth had adopted the kissing technique from the humans- it was meant to symbolize true trust, as well as true love.

However, the moment was cut short. Mewtwo pulled away from her and shoved himself aside. Both he and Deoxys were breathing heavily "I'm… sorry. That was selfish of me." admitted the purple psycat. Deoxys crawled over to him "No… it's fine. I feel the same way."

Mewtwo wanted so badly to embrace the woman he loved again in his arms. To hold her. Just to feel everything that she was and let her do the same to him. He would have been the happiest man alive if only he could feel her warmth every day for the rest of his life.

But then, that was why he was so selfish, wasn't it?

Mewtwo stood up. Deoxys did the same shortly after. His back was facing her, and the alien tried to hug him from behind for reassurance, only to have him push her away. A single word escaped from his lips: 'No.'.

Deoxys was taken aback "Mewtwo…?"

A grim smile came across his face. Yes, he was a selfish man. So selfish. He wanted Deoxys all to himself, knowing full well that she would be unhappy with him. He wanted to lead a normal life, knowing that Absolix had cursed him with his insanity and the eternal fate of being a fake creature. He wanted to kill Gardevoir because she reminded him of Absolix somehow.

Yes, he was so selfish.

But not anymore.

'He' would fix that.

"Deoxys… find someone else."

"Wh-what!?" Deoxys widened her eyes "Mewtwo, we just-! Don't you feel the same way!?"

He turned to her with his bitter smile "You deserve better than me. I won't be selfish any longer. I hope… I sincerely hope you one day find the man of your dreams."

"No! I want to be with you!" Deoxys tried to hug him again, this time using all of her powers, but Mewtwo had regained his identity and his class four prowess left her unable to move any closer to him.

"I'm going to fix this… At least, if I can fix my insanity…!" Mewtwo vowed "It's time for me to stop being selfish.

Kurades!"

Out of nowhere, paper swirled in their area until it coalesced and dispersed, warping in an umbreon man with a crown and a blue cape. His eyes were yellow rings with multiple irises, indicated that the umbreon's master had taken temporary control over his body.

"No…" Deoxys couldn't believe what was happening. Kurades?! Why was Kurades here!?

"Mewtwo, so have you finally decided?" smiled the shapeshifting monstrosity. Mewtwo closed his eyes.

"Yes. I will join you provided you can cure me."

"No!" Deoxys shouted, desperately trying to move and save Mewtwo. Kurades smirked at this and spoke to the crying alien "Do not be so concerned, Ribonian. I have full intention of curing Mewtwo of his insanity."

"YOU LIAR!" Deoxys yelled "What could you possibly do-!"

"I can rid him of all his emotions."

The red and blue psychic gaped. No, that couldn't true. Eliminating all of Mewtwo's emotions, no, that couldn't be true!

"I assure you that I can do it." smiled the umbreon "And before you complain about consent… Mewtwo was the one who suggested it."

No.

"Yes. It'd be the easiest way, after all." nodded the purple psycat "Deoxys… this is for the best. So that I don't hurt anyone else, especially you…"

"No…" cried the red and blue humanoid "No… Mewtwo… please, come back to us… back to me…"

"…maybe one day." said Mewtwo, giving her a smile. Kurades was growing impatient, he had observed that the rangers who had been rendered unconscious from Mewtwo's pain aura were slowly waking up. He did not want to be seen "Mewtwo, we should leave now."

"Alright. One last thing." said Mewtwo. He looked at Deoxys "I need you to relay a message. First, tell everyone where I am and what I am doing. Tell everyone, especially Darkrai and Arceus, that this is for the best.

"Second…" Mewtwo paused. He truly wondered, but he couldn't do anything else but tell her "Tell Arceus that Myuu lives. She had been taken by Giovanni. Those are my last words."

Deoxys could not talk, as Mewtwo had restrained her using his psychic powers. All she could do was cry tears of sorrow at his last request. Finally, the psycat announced he was ready. Right before Deoxys' eyes, a whirlwind of paper came and the two vanished.

Just like that, Mewtwo was gone. Deoxys wailed, because that was all she could do.

* * *

Gardevoir must have fallen for at least a whole minute. Not straight down though, the silk kept pulling her this way and that through the pipes and vents of Altru Tower, disorienting her greatly. However when she finally landed the psychic fairy immediately drew upon her psychic powers to sense and resist any attackers.

She was in a large domed room. The vent in which she had come from was sealed with a great amount of spider silk, as well as the single door leading out of the room. Actually, the entire placed seemed to be covered in silk left and right.

"Spider silk…?" Gardevoir whispered to herself. What did this mean?

She got her answer as an iron thorn nearly stabbed her in the back, but succeeded in only a small cut thanks to her wariness. Just for a split second, Gardevoir had glimpsed her attacker before she scuttled into a dark corner and vanished.

"Ariados!?" questioned the green and white psychic "Ariados, is that you?

The psychic was answered by a literal hail of gold thorns from the southern wall. Numbering in the thousands at the very least, they launched themselves from hidden positions and flew straight at Gardevoir with blinding speed.

The psychic fairy remained calm in spite of the tens of thousands of assailing needles, something Ariados herself had taught her. Eyes glowing with psychic powers, in the split second after the thorns were fire Gardevoir immediately used Teleport to warp herself in the vicinity of where the thorns were fired just before they touched her skin.

This delay made the golden thorns hit the northern part of the dome without so much as a single scratch on Gardevoir- until the next trap activated. As soon as she landed in the southern area she was encased with spider silk then strung upside down by another sturdy string. The girl tried to use another Teleport to free herself but she took the cocoon with her as well. Clumsily landed on the ground, she was soon met with the shadow of an Ariados aiming a vicious Poison Jab at her exposed head.

"Psychic!" she managed to push away the bug type, only to reveal it was a Substitute clone. The real Ariados slashed open the cocoon from behind and then delivered the promised poison attack at Gardevoir's back.

She shouted in pain from the super effective attack while Ariados leapt back into the shadows- only to be left hanging in midair. Gardevoir had worked through the pain and used Telekinesis to trap her opponent in midair. Standing back up, she asked "Ariados? Why are you attacking me?"

At first, the spider pokémon did not answer. After a few seconds of silence, she finally answered: "Serve Blake Hall… kill Gardevoir…"

Just then another trap activated. Pulling a specific string, Ariados caused the only exposed steel wall of the room to unbolt and launch itself at the green haired psychic. Gardevoir managed to avoid it by shooting a Psychic at the wall, but when she looked back to her target, Ariados had disappeared.

"Oh no…" realized the white and green pokémon "Ariados had been brainwashed too!"

This did not bode well for Gardevoir. Her mentor, Ariados of the legendary Team Nova, creator of a hundred Items and the world's foremost expert on trapping and deception was now her opponent. Her senses went on high- despite her incredibly psychic powers the spider pokémon kept both her aura and her Energy Potential Pressure hidden. The girl couldn't find any trace of where she had gone.

Nonetheless she kept her guard up to the utmost extreme, just to sense when the next inevitable trap would activate.

Another iron thorn zoomed past her and she dodged it by sensing its pattern in the air. This was followed up by another iron thorn, then another, then another. For the next five seconds she dodged a total of twelve iron thorns. Briefly considering why the world's greatest weapons expert would use a measly twelve iron thorns to subdue her, Gardevoir soon found her answer as she looked down and realized they were carefully aimed to form a seal on the ground.

"Teleport!"

She barely dodged the Inferno attack that came from the crafty seal. As she did, the spider appeared again to assail her with Poison Jabs. Gardevoir met her by forming a Reflect barrier to make her hits useless, then retaliating with a well-placed Psychic to Ariados' midsection.

Sadly, Ariados wasn't a part of the legendary Team Nova for being weak. On her midsection was one of her hand crafted items, The Psycho Ring. Its effect was ludicrously simple yet extraordinarily powerful: it absorbed Psychic attacks and reflected them back at the user.

So when Gardevoir used the Psychic on Ariados, the ring absorbed her attack then immediately rebounded it, knocking her back a few feet. Seeing her chance, Ariados immediately leapt towards Gardevoir with another Poison Jab at the ready.

Gardevoir was knocked back and saw Ariados coming. There simply wasn't time for a Teleport to be used and she knew a second blow may mean the end for her, seeing as how there was string in her abdominal legs, presumably another trap. Gardevoir saw the spider zoom towards her and was so desperate to avoid the attack that instinct took over.

Just before Ariados touched the girl, she vanished and reappeared a few meters away. Ariados landed, surprised by this.

"I just… oh no…!" Gardevoir hadn't been paying attention and her light powers activated again to save her from danger. She couldn't use them even as a last resort, or else she may enter the "Blanc" state again. Just by using that one power, she could already feel her mind melding to the light powers, tempting more usage.

Ariados rebounded from her miss and charged again, this time launching several gold thorns in quick succession while the silk covered walls homed in on the girl.

Gardevoir decided to try a risky move and launched an all-encompassing Psychic around herself, permeating every bit of space within the dome. The thorns were launched away from her, the steel walls bent back and Ariados herself flew far to the other wall. However, Ariados quickly rebounded from the wall and in the split second Gardevoir needed to recharge her energy, punched her with a deadly Poison Jab.

Seeping in poison with a force of a semi-truck, Gardevoir flew back into the opposing wall and became poisoned from the blow. The spider vanished again.

"N-No…!" this was the second blow she had taken. Not only was Gardevoir now poisoned, but she had yet to land a single hit on this powerful foe. The poison was slowly clouding her mind, she tried to heal it with Safeguard but was immediately pierced by a gold thorn in her arm. She shrieked in pain and fell to the floor, where she heard a sadistic voice chanting.

"Weak girl… so powerless…"

Breathing heavily, she activated a Safeguard and Wish at the same time, both smaller versions than normal in hopes her opponent wouldn't notice.

"Do you not have any power than this…? Is this all you can do…?" said the voice that came from nowhere.

As soon as these words were spoken she felt the light power well up in her once again. It wanted to be free, it wanted to burst out and consume all that it touched. Gardevoir had to hold it back with all her mental might.

"This is the end…"

The entire dome came to life. Specially made seals all around the area, covering every square meter, suddenly burst to life and shot rays of light towards the center of the dome. Gardevoir turned and immediately recognized what it was: when the lights were finished, the total excess Energy Potential of their fight thus hung in the air as a green glowing ball in the center of the complex.

Gardevoir was confused by this move, until she saw that the lights from before did not vanish- they were instead reduced in size to millimeter wide strings, with each seal connected to the glowing orb by the hundreds of strings.

The girl immediately realized what was going on and panicked.

By Ariados' will, she used the strings to direct this concentrated ball of pure energy directly at Gardevoir, slamming her with enough force to crush through a house with ease. She yelped in pain, bleeding from many parts of her body, and the ball surged backwards to hit her again.

"Is this… your power!? Is this all!?" the voice was angry this time "To save your loved ones… you cannot, weak girl… unless you unlock your full potential, you will die here…!"

The energy sphere had gone a sufficient distance backwards, and so it surged towards her again. Another hit meant certain death.

But not for her.

For Darkrai.

She had sworn to save him, and yet here she was being held by Ariados. Fighting a losing battle, getting herself kicked around by the spider, she had proven to be absolutely powerless in trying to get him back. Isn't that why she tried to train with Ariados daily? Wasn't that the reason she willingly gave herself nightmares?

Darkrai… he had suffered for far too long. Being lonely, afraid that his powers would wreak havoc upon everyone he cared about. Ostracized at school, hated by his peers, feared by the general populace as the nightmare giver…

No, Gardevoir decided. That wasn't fair. He didn't deserve such horrible mistreatment. That was why she fought, for his sake, to rescue Darkrai and see him smile even once more.

Then and there, Gardevoir decided she was going to save Darkrai and nothing and no one would stop her. Not the pokémon at her school, not Ariados, not Blake Hall-

-and not even her stupid light powers.

The energy sphere never hit Gardevoir, as she had dodged the attack and sped to the other side of the room. Yelling frantically, she summoned every bit of power she could and Wished her health to its optimal state then, in a move that surprised Ariados, summoned twin light swords from thin air.

Gardevoir turned around, her hair had become increasingly golden along the edges and her eyes glowed a dangerous blue "I… won't… lose." she stammered out. The light power permeated her entire body. She kept it in check with one strong desire.

The energy sphere zoomed towards her again but the girl dodged for a second time. By using Photon Stream on her entire body, Gardevoir could move at light speed in short bursts. She used this technique to consecutively dodge the powerful sphere until she had come up with a plan.

"Light Vector!" she shot a dozen light arrows at the ceiling, destroying some of the seals that kept the energy sphere going. However it wasn't enough- there were seals covering the entire room, she'd have to destroy all of them just to make a dent in the thing, and she strongly suspected Ariados could repair them faster than she could blow them up.

Not only that, but the sphere was steadily growing in size and strength thanks to her using moves, which fed the seals and fed the sphere. Time was of the essence in this battle, the longer she waited, the less chance she had at victory.

Yet somehow, despite these depressing facts, Gardevoir was calm. She was unearthly calm at that, even in this state at some level she felt as though she should be just a little tense from this situation. Yet… she stood there, calmly dodging the energy sphere by moving at the speed of light and thinking of plans to take it out.

It was as if she had nothing to fear. As if she had thoroughly crushed thousands of opponents a thousand times stronger than this one, reducing this supposed epic battle to mere child's play.

But hadn't she?

Confusion entered her mind at this strange feeling of invincibility, but she shook her head and focused on the task at hand: Finding Ariados. Her battle analysis had concluded two things: that Ariados was in this room somewhere, but she wasn't where the increasingly large energy sphere was about to hit.

Therefore, what was the safest place to be, freest from danger in the entire room? The answer was easy.

The direct opposite of the direction the sphere was going.

This was Gardevoir's trump card. When the sphere, having grown from the size of a medicine ball to taking up a tenth of the entire room lunged at her once again, Gardevoir seized this opportunity to finally end the battle once and for all. At the point of impact, she launched an attack that she did not know:

"Beacon Slash!"

She summoned a giant broadsword made from light and proceeded to slash the sphere in its center. Since most of the energy was Gardevoir's own, it was a simple exercise to convince it to launch the other way. Combined with Beacon Slash, an attack that deflected the immaterial, the sphere has no choice in resisting her will and shot backward. When it did, Ariados widened her eyes in awe as her own attack was hurled towards her.

It made a loud crashing noise when the sphere hit the wall, along with Ariados herself. A fantastic light emanated from the energy sphere as it blew up. Seconds after it did, the sphere vanished because its controller was taken out. The spider promptly dropped to the floor, defeated.

"Heh… using my own move… clever…" snided the poison bug. Seeing as it was over, Gardevoir snapped out of her state and ran towards Ariados.

"Ariados, Ariados!" Gardevoir looked at her injuries- being hit with a giant sphere of Energy Potential had made a mess of her body, the spider could barely even move.

"Don't worry, I'll use another Wish!" said Gardevoir. She formed another Wish in her hands, but just before she gave it to Ariados, reality suddenly clicked in.

"Wait…" said Gardevoir "You… you don't have an orange halo above your head?"

An orange halo was the telltale sign that someone was being mind controlled by a Gigaremo unit. Ariados lacked one. Being emotionless was the telltale sign that the Golden Armor had brainwashed you. Ariados smiled at her proudly.

"Wait… so does that mean-"

The final trap activated and both women fell through the floor down a long tunnel carved by Ariados herself. As they fell, Gardevoir gave Ariados the most confused look she had ever given in her life. The spider merely smiled back, genuinely proud of her.

* * *

"What does this thing do?" asked Zero. He turned to Blake Hall, expecting an answer.

Of course, the black haired man stayed silent. Zero eyed the timer, which read ten minutes. Although he didn't much care, he supposed that whatever the rangers were doing, if he helped them a little bit it might take them off his back for a while.

"Whatever." Zero walked towards the machine, ready to shut it off.

And then suddenly one end of the tower fell through due to a giant Psycho Cut, angling the top half of Altru Tower downwards. Because the angle was so steep on one end and because it was so sudden, Zero fell off the tower without warning. That apart of the tower crumbled away, and the top half realized itself.

Blake Hall grinned like a maniac after seeing zero get haxxed like that!

Zero fell through the sky, curing his lux and hoping somebody would save him. Luckily, somebody did. He was caught in the middle of his descent by none other than Mercifond. She had been doing her original job- which was distracting and defeating the grunts of the tower. As a result of her actions, every single Dim Sun grunt in Altru Tower was defeated and their miniremo's smashed. She flew out the window when she saw Zero falling and decided to save him.

"Be grateful I've saved you, despite what you've done to us." Mercifond said to the world's most feared human. She hadn't let him off the hook that easily for all his previous brainwashing and abuse of pokémon.

"Yeah whatever." Zero was as snarky as ever "Get me back up there, I need there's some sort of device up there."

"The tower? Wait, the Dream Machine™ is up there!?" questioned the white bat.

"Yeah, it says it'll activate in ten minutes. What's it do?"

Mercifond changed directions and flew directly up "That's what our mission is! We have to shut it off, or else every single pokémon in the country will be under Dim Spun's mind control!"

"I'm afraid that can't happen, hotstuff."

And all of a sudden, Anarchaoss was floating upside down next to them. This startled Mercifond, who nearly dropped Zero "Wh-wh-what the heck are YOU doing here!"

"My job!" said the chaotic pokémon "We can't let Zero kill the tower!"

"What, but why-"

"The ritual can't happen if he does."

Mercifond and Zero stared at Anarchaoss with wide eyes "Ritual? What are you…?"

Before they even finished their sentence, Anarchaoss had warped them. In a split second, Mercifond and Zero found themselves in a yellow colored dome along with-

"Mercifond!" yelled Gallade.

"Gallade?" the white bat looked around- not only was Gallade there, but so were Gardevoir, Ariados, and even Gallade's parents for some reason.

"What… what's going on here!?" questioned Mercifond.

"Is that thing a pokémon? Can I capture it?" asked Zero, who had a one track mind. He sent two of his stylers towards the new pokémon, but Anarchaoss immediately broke them with his power. Zero grimaced.

"The ritual must commence…" said the steel type in an eerie voice "So everyone present… watch."

On one side of the yellow dome, a screen appeared. It showed Malispite fighting an enraged Darkrai, who was steadily activating Cataclysm.

* * *

Cresselia shouted at Darkrai, having finally arrived in the center of his mind where a gigantic pulsating black sun engulfed the area "Darkrai!"

Her brother heard her but refused to look in her direction. The Cataclysm was getting bigger and he had to contain it no matter what. Not only that, but his confidence was fading as the sun expanded _further and further out crushing his friends and family even his mother was no match for this monstrosity, she too consumed by the blackness, screaming for him_ _SCREAMING WHY WERE YOU BORN LIKE THIS_ _ **WHY CAN'T YOU JUST BE NORMAL DARKRAI!? DARKRAI!?**_

"Darkrai!?" shouted Cresselia. She wondered if her brother could even hear him. That's when she saw his face- a look of pure terror. Without further hesitation she zoomed further towards him.

Nightmares began to plague her mind, but summoning her dream powers, she shone brightly to dispel them. Making her way over to her brother, she bathed the prince of darkness in her good dreaming aura which snapped him out of it.

"Cresselia!?" grunted Darkrai, "What are you doing here, it's not safe!"

"I'm here to save your sorry butt!" Cresselia began to push back the dark nightmare along with Darkrai, decreasing its size.

"Cresselia…" said the prince of darkness. He grunted again, pushing the black furnace, shrinking it in size "This thing is my nightmare powers… all of it. If I can just grab it, I'll be able to control Cataclysm!"

"You do realize you're releasing mini-cataclysmic nightmares in the real world, right?" grumbled his sister "What could have possessed you to try and control this?"

"So that it would never happen again." said the pitch black pokémon simply. Cresselia said nothing in response. He would do that for their sake, wouldn't he?

"Luckily for you I'm immune to nightmares." the yellow swan replied. Together, brother and sister pushed back the black sun. It grew smaller and smaller, finally becoming more manageable.

But as soon as Darkrai had a hope spot, it faded. All of a sudden, the resistance came back. The pulsating sphere shook outward, convulsing as was Darkrai in the real world. His sister's hands, which previously pushed it back, suddenly fell through as if she could no longer touch it.

"Cresselia!" Darkrai pulled his sister out of the sun and flung her into the distance where she was safe.

"What…?" gaped the lunar swan. She, who was the princess of dreams, couldn't touch this black sphere. Much to her brother's protesting, she tried again but nearly succumbed to the black sun again. She escaped again and Darkrai refused to let her back in.

"Cresselia, it's not working! Stay back!" cried Darkrai desperately, trying to hold on for dear life as the sun expanded further and further outward. He could feel it- the Cataclysm was growing stronger, and soon he would unleash a real one into the real world.

This ultimate nightmare ability would be the doom of him and his friends. How could he have thought he could control it!? Cracks were already appearing in the dream world, signaling the end of Darkrai's sanity as well as the only thing that held his nightmares back.

Cresselia realized this in an instant. The Cataclysm, fueled by Darkrai's amazing strength, would cover an area the size of a city, give everyone in it the word possible nightmare, so strong it would break their minds. And there was not a single thing she could do to stop it. Why?

Because this was Darkrai's world, not hers.

"Urg…! Gh-!" Darkrai struggled with all his might, but nightmares plagued his body. His grip on reality was loosening. He was going to lose. He saw countless deaths, countless worlds destroyed by his nightmares yet he hung on to the sun on the desperate hope that he could still contain it.

And then a crazy idea entered Cresselia's head. Almost as crazy as the time she let Absolix have Gardevoir.

"Darkrai."

The prince of darkness had but a fleeting moment to see his smiling sister willingly let herself get consumed by the evil sun. Gaping in horror, her last words rang out to him for more than an eternity.

"I believe in you."

She fell into the immense gravity of the darkness. Swallowed whole, never to return again. This was not a nightmare, this was reality. The Cataclysm surged outwards, breaking the realm of Darkrai's mind. Reality and dream merged to become one, as Malispite witnessed a black bubble twenty meters in diameter suddenly surround his rival. A single pop and it would burst open and unleash the greatest nightmare.

And yet the sphere never expanded to that point.

"No…!" he gritted his teeth "NO!"

Finding the strength that he never imagine himself to have, Darkrai punched back the black sun, shrinking it by half its size. He wailed on the sphere with everything he had, punch after punch, gripping the damned thing and forcing it to submit to his will.

"Give me back my sister!" yelled Darkrai furiously. Before he even realized it, the sphere was only fifty times bigger than him. Then ten. Then five. Until finally, it was of equal size to him but still as strong as ever.

"I won't let anyone hurt her… not even me!" Darkrai roared. He clutched the sphere with everything he had and pressed inward. The cracks of dream and reality broke further and further, the wall between them became indistinct. Nightmares increased inside his head. As the sphere grew smaller and smaller, Darkrai could no longer tell the difference between illusion and reality.

He didn't care. He wanted his sister back.

With a final heave, Darkrai crushed the sun with his bare hands. Outside in the real world, the bubble burst before Malispite could warn anyone about it. But unlike the infinite pain he imagined it to be, the darkness passed over him without harm.

And then all became calm. The brown bat, flying in midair, found the center of the former bubble. There was Darkrai holding Cresselia in his hands. The dark flyer began to fly down.

The lunar queen awoke from her slumber gently to find herself in her brother's arms.

"Never do that again you idiot." cursed the prince of darkness.

"Hmph." Cresselia smiled, "I believed in you, remember?"

He set her down and the lunar swan levitated in the air as normal "So… it's done?"

"Yeah." said Darkrai, relieved at last "It's done. I can control it now."

As proof, he summoned a black sun in his palms, the pinnacle of nightmare power. He crushed it in his hand just as easily. He smiled at her- Cataclysm was defeated. The accursed technique was gone forever and he had his sister back.

"And now…" said Darkrai, "…YOU!"

"YOU!"

Darkrai and Malispite punched each other in the face as hard as they could, sending them both flying into abandoned buildings meters away.

"ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS!? YOU'RE DOING THAT NOW!" blared Cresselia.

"We hate each other." said Darkrai, getting back up.

"Therefore, instead of shaking hands or saying hello, we instead punch each other in the face." finished Malispite, "However, I get to do an extra punch this time."

Darkrai: "Wait wha-"

Malispite punched Darkrai in the face a second time "YOU ASS! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?"

"I had to keep your stupid ass from destroying everyone else. You went berserk there for a while." Malispite grunted "It's only fair."

Darkrai lowered his head. A silence passed between them. Finally, "Thanks."

"Whatever." the two rivals huffed and turned the other way.

"Well then, if you two are done comparing horn sizes," Cresselia insulted them, "we kind of have a mission to do."

"Right. Let's shut down that tower before Blake can activated it." agreed his sister. Darkrai mounted his sister and awaited their departure.

"…what are you doing, little brother?" questioned Cresselia.

"It's on the top floor right? There's no way I can fly that high! You do it!" said Darkrai, afraid. His sister grumbled, but flew off anyway. Extra fast too, just to hear him beg for mercy. Normally Malispite would have joined in on making fun of Darkrai's crippling fear of heights…

But the instant they took off, the shadows grabbed him and flung the bat to another location.

Just as Cresselia and Darkrai crash landed on the roof, Kairi and Ruby made their way through the debris of the tower to meet them. They exchanged quick looks and surrounded Blake "You're done. Surrender now!"

"Sorry, I would love to surrender," replied the black haired man "but I'm afraid you'll all be too brainwashed to understand it."

The clock hit zero.

Midnight had arrived. And at the sound of the first bell chime in Pueltown a mile away, the tower activated.

Despite all of their best efforts, the rangers, Calestia, their mentors, it was all for naught. The tower sent out translucent purple waves powered by the shadow crystal across the entire country. Within five seconds all of Almia was draped in purple. All pokémon, wild, tamed, or even under the care of their trainer for years fell victim to the spell of wanting to serve Blake Hall only.

Darkrai, Cresselia and Ruby gained orange crystals on their head, and a vacant expression in their eyes.

"No!" Kairi yelled in defiance. Cresselia carefully cut Blake free, then pinned Kairi to a wall with Psychic to hold her there. Kairi tried to break free, but Ruby punched her in the face with an empowered fist, sending her to the floor. The only human was down, and all three pokémon were under Blake's control.

"…Attention all of Almia!" the golden armored Blake called out "I, Blake Hall, have finally achieved my grand ambition- the total submission of all pokémon to me!"

The entire country could hear him, but could do nothing as their pokémon closed in on the human populace. Trainer shouted for their beloved partners to remember them, to snap out of it- but it was useless.

"From Altru Tower, I control your fates! Your very lives!" laughed Blake, "You all thought I was making Dream Energy™… hahahah! You fools! There was no Dream Energy™ all along! Altru Tower™ is nothing more than a massive gigaremo©, which with my patented mind control technology© and the shadow crystal™ I've acquired, I will rule Almia© and nothing will stop me!"

"Why did you put the copyright sign next to Almia?" questioned Kairi.

"Because I now own it." said Blake sinisterly, "You rangers have utterly lost. The Legendary Council, who decided to send children against me, have failed as well. I am in control now."

Darkrai was suddenly next to Kairi, who shuddered in fear. Blake nodded at him, "Darkrai, back under my control I see. Make yourself useful and get rid of that pest!"

Kairi braced herself for Darkrai's claw, which could slash through a meter of concrete with ease. However, the claw never came down. It raised, then stopped. Darkrai hung in the air, still.

"Hm? Darkrai! I said kill her!" said Blake again.

Silence. Kairi watched with fascination as the prince of darkness grinned at her. Them, he turned around and grinned at Blake "Sorry there buddy. I'd love to mindlessly follow orders, but I'm afraid you'll be too screwed over to give them."

"No…!" Blake Hall had no translator, and had no idea what Darkrai just said. But it was clear that Darkrai wasn't obeying his orders, and that he was grinning. The prince of darkness floated towards him "Impossible! OBEY ME!"

Blake Hall activated the golden armor again- he was able to get one more charge out of it- and used it to put a grip on Darkrai's mind. For a brief instant Darkrai stopped coming towards him… only to immediately resume the next second. The dark type had already been under the influence of the golden armor, and he had learned how to defeat it from his experience.

His mind maze the second time may as well have been a straight line.

"Nope." said Darkrai. He saw Ruby and Cresselia sneaking up behind him under Blake's orders, and quickly put them both to sleep with a Dark Void attack. He turned his attention back to the scared human being "We've all been wanting to see this for a while."

Without any remorse Darkrai punched the human in the chest, cracking the golden armor and sending Blake flying back to his machine. The prince of darkness realized the machine was completely active- every single pokémon in the country except him was under mind control. Darkrai looked around the area, finding a recovered Kairi, who spoke "Darkrai! The third luminous crystal is destroyed!"

As soon as he heard Kairi's statement, Blake Hall got back up, injured but still grinning "Heheh… that's right! I don't need you to obey me, skirt wearing goth! I still have an entire country under my control and there's not a damn thing you can do about it!"

At this, Kairi noticed several flying type pokémon headed this way. She could think of no other option: "We have to destroy it!"

"Destroy it? How?" laughed Blake "This entire tower is now connected to the shadow crystal!" he pointed to the deep purple crystal, "If you even attempt to destroy any part of it… the shadow crystal may break! And you know what happens if it breaks!"

Kairi gasped. She knew all too well- the negative emotions that had been absorbed over who knows how many years would flood the vicinity and give them a certain death sentence. Them, the people in the tower including their friends, the rangers on the outside…

"No… No!" Kairi despaired "No there has to be another way! We can… We can…!"

Darkrai approached the shadow crystal. He gazed at it intently. Everyone stared at him.

"Hey Kairi. Stand back." said the prince of darkness.

He took a firm hold of the shadow crystal and began absorbing it.

 _"_ _Well, usually to get rid of these things we need a dark type to absorb all of the energy from it." said the fire rabbit, "Dark types have a natural resistance and affinity to them. But they have to be able to handle the strain of all that negativity first."_

Every single ounce of negative energy began to pour into Darkrai. Kairi screamed for him to stop, but the ranger's scream was drowned out by the sound of the shadow crystal giving all it had to the dark type.

"Is he a fool!? He'll be killed!" Blake shouted amidst the chaos. Darkrai however, did not falter. He remained firm in his stance and continued to absorb it all.

 _"_ _Not quite yet, you couldn't possible handle the combined total of who knows how many years of negative feelings…_

"Screw that." Darkrai said to himself "Bring it on, shadow crystal!"

The amount of negative emotions blacked out the sky and all of it zoomed into Darkrai with a loud boom. For an instant, everything was silent. The noises stopped, the humans stopped screaming, even Darkrai had stopped.

"D-Darkrai?" Kairi whispered. No response. The young legendary remained still "Darkrai?"

"Darkrai!?" Cresselia suddenly yelled. Kairi looked to her left- Cresselia and Ruby were back to normal. Which could only mean…

"He did it. He absorbed the negativity of the entire shadow crystal!" Kairi shouted. Her reasoning was confirmed- the flying pokémon coming towards them flew the opposite direction. Pokémon all across the country regained their senses and reunited with their loved ones. But the prince of darkness himself…

"Did you just say he…" Cresselia was agape "Darkrai! Darkrai!"

"Oh relax, would you?" Darkrai rubbed his head, turning around "I did it alright! And it gave me a killer headache so stop shouting already-"

He was embraced by his sister. Smiling, Darkrai hugged her back. While the two siblings comforted each other, Kairi walked towards the absolutely stunned Blake Hall.

"But that's… that's impos… he can't do that… he can't just…" muttered Blake to himself. Kairi immediately put handcuffs on him and Blake didn't even realize it. His plans had been absolutely crushed and the greedy human could barely comprehend it.

"Then it's over…?" Ruby said, regaining her senses "It's finally over, Blake Hall's defeated!?"

"Yes." said Cresselia "It's finally over! Mission complete everyone!"

Blake was still muttering to himself when Kairi Called the Ranger union, telling them it was all over. Darkrai had absorbed the shadow crystal's negative properties, turning it pure white colored in the process. Blake Hall was arrested, the golden armor had been taken off, and the mission was completed successfully. The girls cheered and smiles were exchanged everywhere.

Clapping.

Clapping was heard to their left. Congratulating them on a job well done.

"To think you'd be able to absorb the shadow crystal, Darkrai…" said a man's voice "I must say this throws a wrench into my plans."

The short figure began to step out of the shadows. And as he did, Blake Hall stammered out "Wait- there you are! You said you'd help me take over the country! You said-"

"And you actually believed that?" laughed the short rabbit, "No Blake, I was using you. I just needed you to get the shadow crystal working to make my job easier."

"You…" Darkrai widened his eyes, "What are you talking about!?"

"After all," said the fire type "It would have been SO much easier to absorb Darkrai's life span if he was a mindless slave. I arrive just a little late, and this is the result? I was foolish to leave this simple task in your hands..."

"Oh well." said Victini, covered in ominous red symbols, "I guess I'll just have to do this the hard way."


	6. VI: The Eternal Flame

**\- Part Six: The Eternal Flame -**

* * *

Malispite rubbed his head in pain. Something had grabbed him unexpectedly and flung him very far away, he landed on his head "Alright…" growled the brown bat, "Who's the wise guy…!?"

He got back up. Malispite scanned the area, he was outside Altru Park and in one of the forests next to it. The tower was about a kilometer away, or less by the looks of it "Now how did I end up here?"

He was in a cleared area of the forest, it looked like humans were constructing something here but abandoned the project. Looking about further, he saw his assailant on a tree.

It was a grey colored ghost type with one eye, and held a cane despite the fact that he floated as a means of transportation. Malispite frowned, "Dusknoir…?"

"Hello Malispite." said the once jovial ghost type in an eerie voice "Die."

"…Eh?" questioned the brown bat.

Malispite was suddenly attacked by shadow swords coming from under the ground, he barely managed to dodge them. Shadow Balls were launched at the brown bat from another location and all but one was dodged as he flew into the air.

"Die…" said the disembodied voice of Dusknoir, hiding in the shadows.

"What the hell…" Malispite dodged more attacks flung at him, "What the hell is going on here!?"

* * *

They all stared at Victini, now covered in mysterious red tattoos. He was speaking more rudely than before, and now claimed to be using Blake Hall for his own selfish ends. And…

"Life force… what do you mean by that?" Kairi asked, albeit hesitantly.

Victini let out a small chuckle "Oh it's simple, really. It's called the Ritual of Eternal Flame. A forbidden technique among my clan, the effect is basically this: by absorbing someone else's life span, I can add it to my own.

This increases my life span and youth by however many years that pokémon had to live. Has a nasty side effect of killing whoever I use it on, but whatever."

Everyone stopped breathing.

"Why… are you talking about something like that?" Darkrai gaped.

"You know, Darkrai," Victini stared at him with piercing blue eyes "In the beginning I never imagined that you were related to Arceus. Your power is too low, you're techniques are different … but now after getting to know you, I finally figured it out. You are indeed Arceus' son.

You clearly inherited all of her foolishness."

Everyone in the room was scared stiff. They could only listen as Victini continued:

"Your mother was always too trusting. It's that foolishness that lead to Absolix breaking free, to the incident at Tajiri high… and now, that foolishness will cost her two of her children."

"What are you saying?!" Darkrai yelled.

"See? You all were fooled so easily it's almost pathetic. But here, I'll spell it out for you:" smiled Victini generously "I was never on your side. Never. See, legendarys have nice long lifespans, but there are just so few of them living in the world… save for one place."

"The Legendary Council…" breathed Cresselia.

"So I entered in order to gain Arceus' trust. Wasn't all that hard. And then I bode my time, waiting for the opportunity… to make me immortal." smirked the fire rabbit "And now I finally have my chance. The spatial network is disrupted thanks to my intervening-"

"What!? That was you, Victini!?" Kairi blared, unable to believe it.

"- and now Arceus has no idea what's going on right here and now. Two legendarys… both with lifespans at least over 1000 years old are right in front of me and that woman can't stop me. The proper seals have been placed onto my body, and all of you are exhausted from your fight against Blake. My patience has rewarded me."

"No! No that can't be!" Darkrai yelled frantically "What the hell happened to you!? Did Blake do this!? Is there someone threatening your family!? Answer me, Victini!"

"I'm here of my own free will." said Victini simply, "This was all my plan. Everyone has been dancing in the palm of my hands. Blake at least provided some nice support- no one can rescue you now. First I'll take down you, Darkrai, since you'll be more difficult to deal with than your sister. After that, Cresselia, you're next.

Oh, and one last thing."

Victini closed the distance between himself and the prince of darkness "I am no longer Victini. Call me Escodia."

Darkrai saw the punch coming from a mile away. He saw it, but refused to believe that it was there. Why on earth, he thought, would Victini punch him with all he had, for the purpose of nearly killing him? It would never happen. That's why Darkrai didn't dodge the punch; He knew it couldn't exist.

Reality begged to differ. Darkrai shot down the floors of the towers, breaking steel beams and wooden floors as he descended down towards the bottom, where he finally landed. He should have cried out in pain but at this point he was mentally numb.

Victini had betrayed them. Victini was attacking them.

The fire psychic landed in front of him. There was a slight frown on his face "Honestly I thought you'd put up more of a fight. Oh well. So be it."

The prince of darkness could only watch as his mentor summoned a giant flaming sphere, the Searing Shot attack, and pointed it right at him. He launched it but at the last second Cresselia intervened, creating a powerful enough Light Screen to deflect the attack.

"Victini, what are you doing!?"

"You need to be near death for the ritual to happen," calmly explained the fire rabbit, "otherwise it'll be more difficult; you might just die without me getting my immortality and I can't have that."

"Victini…!" the lunar swan blared "We trusted you…! Darkrai trusted you!"

The fire rabbit closed in on Cresselia, smiling cruelly "Yeah, you did." the class three slammed into her side with a powerful Fire Punch attack. A wall shattering split was heard, followed by blood on the floor and Cresselia trying to heal herself. Victini stood before her, arms raised ready to attack again.

The sound of Cresselia being hurt caused Darkrai to snap out of his stupor. He stood up and faced Victini, who turned to face his new target as well. Darkrai stared at the fire rabbit intensely.

"Tell me one thing." demanded the student, "Those times we spent together…"

 _"I'll teach you what it really means to be a Legendary. You up for that?"_

 _"Three fighting types against one dark type will be good training for him."_

 _"You did… very well. I'd say you are definitely a class Three now. I would, but you still have a long ways to go plus you're an idiot plus you still lost to Zero plus Absolix obliterated you with 2% of his power so no you're fine being a class Two."_

 _"He just keeps surprising me. And he's getting better every day, for once I actually am enjoying training a disciple… don't tell him I said that though, you know the code."_

"What were they to you?" finished the prince of darkness. The red rabbit continued to smile, as if amused by Darkrai. He chuckled once.

"A necessary façade."

"So those times… when it seemed like we were talking…"

"Lies."

That one word made Darkrai's aura flared up. His EPressure flooded the room, which became darker due to his pure black aura becoming visible.

"Lies…" Darkrai stated back, anger and aura rising "That's it, huh?"

"Yep. But by all means, continue believing I was nice to you." smirked the evil pokémon.

Darkrai saw Kairi lift Cresselia from the corner of his eye and drag her to safety.

"Fine. I guess you're just another guy I have to beat up."

This time it was Darkrai who punched the fire rabbit, with a Dark Pulse Punch. To not endanger his sister any further, this punch sent both he and his opponent smashing through the front door of the tower and then straight on to the middle of Altru Park, a great distance away from Cresselia.

No more words needed to be said. Darkrai's tears remained in his mind as he lunged at Escodia again. Flame Bursts shot around Darkrai when he made his move, the dark type used his speed to dodge the attacks and meet his enemy halfway in the air, where his Dark Pulse and Escodia's Fire Punch collided.

Shockwaves erupted from where they made contact; more followed as Darkrai followed up with more Dark Pulse infused punches, each one having the strength to shatter a solid meter of concrete. His blows were met with a combination of martial arts, Zen Headbutts and Fire Punches from Escodia.

Darkrai gave a primal yell and summoned all of his power. He summoned the greatest nightmare- Cataclysm- and rammed it into Escodia's head, which sent the fire rabbit crashing down to the ground, forming a crater and wilting any plant life.

Sadly that was just a Substitute clone that the man had managed to create in between blows- the real Escodia popped up behind Darkrai and used Searing Shot to slam him into the ground instead. The great fire attack scorched the ground and made a solid crater upon impact before the remaining fire energy pillared towards the sky.

Darkrai lay in the center of the crater, having just used a Dark Void to absorb some of the attack.

"Why…?" he murmured, keeping the tears inside himself.

* * *

"Why…?" cried the pink psycat. Why did it hurt her to think about her beloved? Why did that gruesome image keep popping up in her head- that was a mistake! Xeno wasn't in the right state of mind, he would never have done it otherwise! She wasn't just some tool to be… to be…

 _"_ _Mewthree," said Jessica in a worried voice, "you have to find a way to escape from Giovanni once you're out there."_

 _"I can kill Mewtwo. Don't worry, please." she responded._

 _"Even if you can… don't come back. I think they're making another project- a Mew four…"_

 _"And?"_

 _"They…" Jessica relived her recent memories "It's going to be a male this time… and they said if it was created, they would force you two to breed to create a stronger monster… and if you couldn't…"_

 _Mewthree gazed at her human companion "Please… just run away as soon as you get the chance. I want you at least, to live a better life…"_

…to be discarded.

Xeno didn't see her that way. Xeno loved her. Xeno loved her. Xeno loved-

 _Xeno's hand shot through Mewthree's midsection._

Mewthree gagged and couldn't hold it back any longer. She became sick and after the event, wept for reasons she couldn't understand. Or perhaps, she wept for reasons she did understand but did not want to.

"Xeno…" tears streamed down her face "You would say you love me… right?"

She didn't know the answer to her question. The poor thing had been programmed to unconditionally love Xeno no matter what. It was logical at the time, as if Mewthree couldn't defeat Mewtwo then she had to be used as a womb for the next generation of Mew clones. Unconditional love would make the whole process smoother, and allow her to endure the relatively painful treatments she would have to receive to create multiple babies at once.

And although it was just a precaution, the scientists had a plan B in the event Mewthree was killed, ran away or the like. They had several Mewthree clones in storage, but without the ability to think for themselves. Those would work in a pinch if something went wrong.

She knew all of this and couldn't stop herself from loving Xeno. It had finally hit her after so long- she was a tool. Nothing more. She had failed to kill Mewtwo, and there was no way she could ever come close to the level of the psychic type she had to kill to gain freedom.

At this realization the girl broke. She no longer bothered to hide her tears, she wept openly. She cried at her helplessness, at her useless form… Mewthree banged her first on the floor once, unable to feel the blood on her hand from impact. The girl had become what she was destined to be: a shallow copy of Myuu that served Giovanni, without any purpose beyond eternal subservience.

She wept.

She cried hot silent tears in a fetal position, cursing her destiny.

As she cried, slowly, a warmth filled her body. Although the insectoid wings were thin, they blanketed the crying child in a layer of warmth regardless. Brillareby embraced Mewthree in her own way. She and the rest of the Neo-Genesis members, gathered by Salamantra, said nothing and let her cry.

Even the normally crass Yami had nothing to say on the matter. They slowly came into her room and surrounded the psycat. Even Giga despite his enormous size was peeping in the doorway, concerned about her.

It took a bit before Mewthree realized every single member in Neo-Genesis excluding Absolix and Akumori were in her room. The girl felt the warmth of the combined energy from Neo Genesis for a few minutes before Salamantra spoke.

"We were… worried about you. Pardon the intrusion."

Mewthree choked "You all hate me! I'm weak, I'm powerless… I'm just a tool…!"

"Mewthree…" Yumi said softly.

"Inori you teleport people right!? Take me to the rocket hideout! It's the only thing I'm good for…" sobbed the pink psycat "The only thing I can do is… is fulfill my second mission and be a womb for-!"

"No." interrupted Inori, "I'm not sending you back to that cruel human.

"Why not!? You'll get rid of me faster if you just let me go!" she cried angrily.

"Because we don't want you to go!" Yami shouted. The rude rabbit finally had something to say "Yeah you're weak but… but so what! You'll get better! And… and…"

"…I think what my sister is trying to say…" said the light brown rabbit on the other end of the chain, "Mewthree, you're family to us now."

The statement echoed in Mewthree's ears. There was only one other person who had called her 'family' before. And that person was a dead human being- meaning that until now, family for her meant nothing.

"Mewthree… do you know what Neo-Genesis means?" questioned Inori, "Absolix named it when we first formed this organization… it means 'New Life'."

"Do you understand the meaning behind the name, child?" asked Salamantra "To those in this group, we offer a new life. That includes you."

Mewthree processed these words, still feeling the hot tears in her face. A silence passed between all of them. The girl broke the silence "How can I have a new life… when Giovanni controls mine completely?"

"He can't control you. And we'll prove it." Salamantra assured her "If that bastard even sets foot in this place, I'll seal him into a dimension of nothingness."

"I'll teleport him into a volcano and see how he likes it." added Inori.

"I'll wipe his mind." Brillareby said.

"And we'll blast him into a million pieces for good measure." said Yumi and Yami at the same time.

"Mewthree-chan… perhaps we were hard on you in the beginning. But you have convinced us that you are a fine addition to the team." said the fire type "…you've grown on us. And that is why Inori-san will not teleport you to Giovanni. Because you are family now."

"We don't know how to resolve the situation between you and Xeno," said Brillareby "but at least know that no matter what, we're here for you."

"You're Neo-Genesis now." Inori said, "So forget about Giovanni. This is your new life."

Mewthree took all this in slowly. They accepted her, truly made her feel like she belonged. And unlike Xeno, this was neither forced nor genetically programmed. It was real.

"A king forsaken by his land…" said Salamantra, "A woman who was the loneliest in the world... A poor girl on the verge of death, now healed… A monstrosity who no one wanted to understand… A man who lost everything because he did the right thing…" he looked at the Neo Genesis members in order "And now, a clone who was enslaved by a cruel human, now free." he looked at Mewthree.

"Perhaps this is why Absolix took you in? It wouldn't be surprising, given how the rest of us joined him…" mused Salamantra, with the others nodding their heads in agreement.

That was what this place was, after all. A chance to start anew. A new life, as it were.

Mewthree began to silently weep again, but this time they were not tears of sorrow. Without thinking, she hugged Brillareby with all she had. The pink butterfly hugged her back and soon all the members of Neo Genesis, even Giga with his giant hand, had engaged in a group hug with Mewthree at the center.

She felt the warmth of them, and for the first time in her life, felt like things were going to turn out okay. The girl stopped crying.

"Thank you… everyone." said the pink psycat.

* * *

"This is… horrible…" Cresselia said. She, Kairi and the captured Blake Hall were on the sidelines watching Darkrai fight "How could Victini do this!? How could he-

* * *

"- try and attack Darkrai like this!?" finished Gallade. Inside the strange barrier, their voices could not be heard. Although they could vaguely see the fight between the fire rabbit and the nightmare pokémon in the distance, the one screen at the very front showed their fight in great detail.

"I thought he was on our side…" Mercifond stammered "I thought he and Darkrai…"

"We have to do something!" said Gardevoir, worried. The barrier was divided into two sections. The first was the Calestia section- she, Gallade, Mercifond, Deoxys and Zero she supposed, and the second was the section for their recent opponents- Ariados and Gallade's parents.

"Do something?" Anarchaoss floated down next to her "Oh no. That won't happen."

"You…!" Gallade growled on the floor "Let us out!"

"The ritual must commence. It must be completed." repeated the steel type.

"Why are you helping him?" Mercifond yelled.

"The same reason why I bother to do anything." shrugged Anarchaoss "because the fate of this entire planet hangs in the balance. Well maybe. We'll see."

Zero merely raised an eyebrow. Anarchaoss created another barrier which separated him from Calestia. Though they banged on the walls of the barrier, there was nothing they could do to escape. With Anarchaoss's ability to absorb energy, every action they took made him and subsequently his barrier stronger. Add in the fact that all three were weakened, Zero's Stylers were out of power and Deoxys was too stunned to move, and they would remain trapped for as long as the chaotic steel type liked.

"Come on gang! We need a way through the barrier!" Mercifond shouted. She hit the barrier with all her might, but sadly it did nothing.

"Let's do a combined attack!" Gardevoir suggested. Everyone in the room with power gathered in the center to charge their energy. Everyone that is, except Ruby.

The girl had been silent all this time, unusually so for her. Finally paying attention to Ruby, they saw a shocked expression written on her face. A bead of cold sweat dripped down.

"Anarchaoss…?" said Ruby softly. The steel type gave a questioning look, but then remembered an important detail:

"Oh shit, that's right, Telepathy…!" Anarchaoss became worried. Very quickly, he created another barrier which sealed Ruby off from the rest of them.

"Anarchaoss…" a tear slid down Ruby's eye "Is that true? Is he going to die?"

Only the steel type could hear her words. He remained silent and watched the battle unfold.

* * *

A Dark Void attack was thrown at Escodia, who use his speed to dodge the millions of spheres thrown at him. The fire rabbit took some distance away from Darkrai, then countered with a massive Searing Shot attack, quickly sucked up by a black hole.

The two met in the center and clashed- but both vanished after the first blow, since both were nothing but Substitute copies. Realizing this, the real Darkrai and Escodia used wide range attacks- Dark Pulse and Flame Burst respectively- to try and hit anything in the area that could be their opponent in disguise.

It was the fire rabbit who figured out where Darkrai was hiding first- as a shadow in the leftmost part of the ground next to the forest. Without so much as hesitating, Escodia summoned his powers and performed a move that not even Darkrai saw coming-

"Fusion Bolt!"

The fire rabbit cloaked himself in dangerous electricity and fell like a meteor at the shadow. The strong light forced Darkrai out and super powerful electric attack hit Darkrai without remorse, crushing him along with the now crater shaped ground.

"What!?" blared the prince of darkness, "Isn't that… Zekrom's signature move!? How the hell did you learn it?"

"Hah, when those two punks attacked me I picked up a few of their tricks." admitted Escodia "Calling it a signature move would be too good though. All those two really have are throwing around giant balls of their element. Nothing to it to learn the attack after a couple tries."

"True." said Darkrai, "I guess I can relate."

"…hah?" questioned the fire rabbit.

"Yeah by the way," the nightmare pokémon started channeling his energy, "remember that time I was learning from you? I did.

SEARING SHOT!"

Before the former master could even react, a sun formed from Darkrai's hand and he attacked with it- assailing Escodia with its hot temperature. Though he was resistant to it being a fire type, the sheer power of that attack caused him to fly into the air and be scorched regardless. Escodia escaped the sun, which exploded behind him, bringing a Zen Headbutt towards Darkrai.

"When… did you?" the victory legend's head met Darkrai's fist and the two collided again.

"Since day one you bastard!" Darkrai overpowered Escodia and landed a successful Dark Pulse Punch on the rabbit's cranium, sending him flying through several trees.

"Since day one I've been copying you! I wanted to…!" the dark type hesitated.

The forest became alit with fire, its burning several acres of trees created an unholy flame that hued the night sky a dangerous red "Oh wow, all that for me? Hahah! And you thought I might acknowledge you or something!? That's too rich, idiot." Escodia's voice cackled "I can't wait for the ritual to start now…"

"You!"

"Now, let me show you how fire is handled." the fire from the trees turned a sinister red and black color. The legendary floated in its center, commanding the flame "Inferno!"

An entire tidal wave of black flames surged towards Darkrai. The thing easily scorched the ground as it travelled, drying up the air and leaving not even ashes from what it came in contact with. The prince had all but a single second to think of a counter before he was dissolved.

"Dark Void version 2!" Darkrai quickly made a black hole, then connected it to another black hole on the opposite side of the tidal wave where Escodia was. He leapt through, but was greeted by another Fusion Bolt which sent him spiraling to the ground. The rabbit pinned him to the floor and commanded the black flames to reverse their direction, collapsing in on the both of them.

"DARK PULSE!" the dark type unleashed his biggest Dark pulse ever- a grey and black shockwave that stretched for hundreds of meters in every direction. It knocked Escodia off of him, it contacted the Inferno and blew it away by sheer power alone, and it blanketed the air with dread.

In the half second after the technique was unleashed, Darkrai decided to end it then and there. He had been holding back his most sinister move for the entire battle, but realized that if he didn't use it now, Victini… no, Escodia, would overpower him.

Darkrai zoomed in the air right at the fire rabbit, his hand met the enemy skull and Darkrai contracted his darkness energy "Apocalypse!"

A giant hand emerged from Darkrai's own hand, filled to the brim with eyes and creepy grins. The giant hand cackled once and closed itself on Escodia, trapping him in the mother of all nightmares.

And then, Darkrai was struck in the back by the real Escodia.

"Substitute clone~!" said the fire legend dangerously "Now… V-Create!"

The explosion that resulted from Darkrai hitting the ground was deafening. The most powerful fire attack and Victini's signature move, V-Create, was for the first time unleashed at full power on the former apprentice. It hit Darkrai with force, it burned him from sheer heat, and it ignited the atmosphere itself resulting in a large explosion that made a kilometer wide crater on impact.

Escodia huffed, gently floating down to the crater "Well that… was interesting." admitted the former legendary "Now… where are you… Darkrai?"

Escodia examined the crater from a certain distance, trying to locate his ticket to eternal youth. It was only when Darkrai wasn't even in the crater did he realize something was wrong. Before a "What?" could be uttered by him it was he who was slammed into the ground with unparalleled force.

The force was so great that it actually snapped Escodia out of his nightmare, where he woke up to dirt and a collapsing cavern. Yelling in rage, Victini summoned another Inferno which melted the ground above him and prevented any damage. He leapt out of the cavern to face Darkrai.

"How the hell…?" asked Escodia, breathless.

"I was prepared for something like that." explained the injured Darkrai. He had still taken a little bit of the V-Create attack "I strengthened my nightmare aura to its absolute maximum before I entered the Dark Void portal. You touched me. You got a nightmare.

And then I kicked your sorry ass into the dirt and caused it to collapse on you."

The former legendary smiled. He began to laugh "Hahaha… good one."

"I'll give just one chance to surrend-"  
"I don't believe it. You're still trying to convince me out of this, aren't you?" his smile instantly turned into a frown "That stopped being funny fifteen minutes ago when we started fighting. So shut up already."

Darkrai stopped talking. His fists clenched and his calm turned into rage "Why!? Why the hell are you doing this!?"

"Didn't you hear me? I said shut up." Escodia launched himself with psychic powers using Zen Headbutt, then coated his head in a Searing Shot. Darkrai screamed at him and fired off a Dark Pulse powered Shadow Ball.

* * *

"Darkrai!" yelled Gardevoir. Their combined attacks weren't doing anything and Darkrai was still fighting Escodia. Anarchaoss refused to budge his intricate barrier, instead continuing to show them what was happening afar.

"Let us out you insane psycho!" Cresselia yelled.

"Lol no." the steel type smirked "The ritual must commence."

He eyed Ruby again. For about ten minutes she was shouting at the rest of Calestia, but they couldn't hear her message due to Anarchaoss's soundproof barrier. During the last five, she apparently gave up and just began to cry a little. Using her Telepathy ability, she had uncovered secrets she wasn't supposed to know- and because of that, she knew about the tragedy that was to come.

"Damn it… we can't break it…" Gallade said helplessly.

"…" Gardevoir was silent. Finally, she resolved to finish this "I'm going to use my light powers."

A silence, then "What? Gardevoir you can't enter that mad state again-"

"I won't sit by here while Darkrai is being hurt like this!" yelled the white psychic in response, eyes already becoming concentric blue circles. It had already begun, and even Anarchaoss recognized the danger.

"Oh sh-!" the barrier immediately broke after an extraordinarily powerful light attack was launched from Gardevoir's palms. Not to be outdone, Anarchaoss quickly repaired the barrier and set himself on the outside, where Gardevoir awaited him.

"You… I… I will…" Anarchaoss could see that the psychic type was already losing it. In mere seconds she would become something so terrifying that not even he could stop her. As much as he hated to do it, the steel type had no other choice.

He ran next to Gardevoir, dodging an absurdly powerful Photon Wave and met his mouth with her ear.

"Look, I know you can hear me, Absolix. Do me a solid and knock this girl out please? Fate of the world and whatnot could be at stake!"

Gardevoir brushed him aside with a powerful Avatar slash, then summoned the thing in full. A towering gardevoir made of light appeared before her, poised to destroy the entire area. Until that is, she fainted. The Avatar dispersed.

"…" Anarchaoss quickly grabbed the girl and threw her back in with the rest. Calestia was wide eyed, although they could not hear, they saw what had happened.

"What did you say that made her stop?" Mercifond had to know.

"Super complex bullshit. Trust me." the steel type once again isolated himself from the rest of them. The situation had barely changed from before, except now Gardevoir was knocked out for some reason. They were down to three active members, Cresselia, Gallade and Mercifond. Ruby had apparently given up hope and sat in a corner. And with Deoxys still staring blankly into space

Mercifond was the least injured, but still pretty beat up. Gallade, at this point, could barely move. Cresselia was slightly better than Gallade, she at least had her health, but zero energy to use. Zero merely stared, not inclined to move. It seemed as though escaping would have to be left to Deoxys.

"Deoxys…?" questioned Mercifond. No response. Only that same silent whisper: "He took him…"

No one had any idea what that meant, but apparently it had affected Deoxys severely. At this point however, it seemed as though not even she could break through Anarchaoss's barrier. Mercifond craned her neck, trying to think of a way out of this. Then-

"Hey wait a minute…!" Mercifond started to panic, realizing for the first time "Where's my brother!? Where's Malispite!?"

* * *

The brown bat hit the dirt without warning. Turns out, not only could Dusknoir make him invisible, but also his attacks. This made dodging incredibly difficult. Malispite got back up and kept moving "Damn! How am I supposed to hit this guy!? And why is he attacking me anyway!?"

No answers, not even from Dusknoir himself. Malispite barely and accidentally dodged another Shadow Ball, which hit the trees next to him instead. This was a precarious situation for him. Judging from the angle at which the trees were hit, that meant the Shadow Ball must have been fired from-

"There!" Malispite lunged at the direction of his assailant and pounded the ground with a Mega Punch as hard as he could. This caused the ground to collapse inward from his sheer power, knocking over tress and a couple of bulldozers leftover from the humans.

Dusknoir was not hit, but was exposed. From the corner of his eye, Malispite saw him and used Pursuit to instantly turn around to hit him. The ghost type met his barrage of blows with his cane, expertly deflecting the punches despite their superior strength. Malispite opened up his mouth for a Zap Cannon attack and fired it at point blank range.

The Team Nova leader then used Transparency- an expert level ghost type move- to completely phase through his attack and Malispite's body, then slam him to the ground with a gigantic Shadow Ball. The resulting impact hurt the brown bat greatly.

"Die." said the strange voice of the ghost type "Die, son of Akumori."

Malispite's ears perked up when he heard his father's name. Was that what this was about? Dusknoir getting revenge because his father utterly destroyed the ghost in the past? No… Dusknoir wasn't acting right…

"The Golden Armor!" Malispite realized. He stood back up just to watch Dusknoir vanish. Yes, it all made sense now: Blake must be controlling Dusknoir with the Golden armor. Probably, he brainwashed the old ghost with a fake reason to want Malispite dead too.

"So that's how it is…" the brown bat narrowed his eyes "Alright then. I won't hold back anymore…"

"Shadow Zone!" Dusknoir immediately summoned several Shadow Balls, each bigger than a truck, in sequence around Malispite "Die…" he then launched all of them at once towards the center- where the brown bat stood. All the ghost spheres collided at the center and emitted a shockwave that went for several dozen meters on end. The impact destroyed any nearby trees, crushed the human's machinery and made a crater the size of a house.

Malispite appeared right beside Dusknoir, having dodged all of them with blindingly fast speed. "Demon's Offence."

There was a single Thunderpunch from Malispite at Dusknoir. However, this particular attack was backed up by Malispite's absurd strength and a Demon's Offence, plus Malispite put every bit of power he had into it.

The result was a punch that blew Dusknoir an entire kilometer away back to Pueltown where the fight first started. The ghost type crashed through several buildings like a meteor, eventually crashing into the ground. Knowing that it wouldn't be enough to stop Dusknoir, immediately after the punch Malispite used Pursuit to fly towards him for another explosive Thunderpunch again.

Just before Malispite's fist made contact with Dusknoir's head, the ghost type peered into his very soul and said "Pain Split."

And instantly, Malispite felt the exact amount of pain he just dealt to Dusknoir. The move was cancelled and the brown bat crashed into another building, bowling over in pain.

"Too simple…" said Dusknoir, "Akumori… was many times stronger than this…"

Still reeling over, Malispite caught those words. He quickly learned that his father was a being like Absolix: so powerful that defeating him wasn't even a viable option. And now he was facing the guy who was strong enough to actually survive an encounter with that man.

"Shut… up!" growled Malispite. He slowly got back up, but as he did a Shadow Ball knocked him to the side and back to the ground.

"Behold…" said Dusknoir. The air suddenly became grey, all colors because saturated and a massive power began to build up inside the ghost type's stomach. Malispite immediately recognized this, because when he was training Dusknoir had told him about his signature move, perfected over the years.

"Phantom World Breaker!"

Malispite screamed as he felt all of his energy being sapped into the sky. The process was panful, but it was over in just under five seconds. The brown bat stood back up. As much as it hurt to lose all of your energy, the next part was where Phantom World Breaker truly became frightening:

 _"_ _My signature move is the ultimate attack~!" bragged Dusknoir._

 _"Oh yeah? What's it do?" questioned the brown bat._

 _"Phantom World Breaker, my own attack, has two phases: in phase one it steals all of your energy and converts it into my health! But phase two is even worse… in phase two, you see,_

 _it seals every single move of my enemy!"_

Malispite quickly tried to punch Dusknoir with a Thunderpunch- but the attack came out just as a normal punch. The ghost type quickly caught it and slammed Malispite into the ground.

Yes, herein lie the true power of Phantom World Breaker- as long as Malispite was inside Dusknoir's "Zone" so to speak, all of his moves became unusable. Worse, his EP would not regenerate over time like normal, it would stay stagnant.

Meanwhile he still had to fight Dusknoir, the leader of the world's greatest Rescue Team.

"Die…" several Shadow Balls were summoned, and Malispite found himself once again trapped in Shadow Zone. Once again, but this time without Demon's Offence, the Shadow Balls flung themselves towards their target and impacted Malispite with the force of a semi-truck- each.

Somehow Malispite managed to dodge the brunt of it by quickly punching the ground as fast as he could and make a safety hole to hide in. It didn't negate the entire attack, but it was enough. He flew out of the hole the instant the attack ended and zoomed towards the perimeter in order to escape Phantom World Breaker.

Sadly Dusknoir saw him, used Shadow Sneak to warp around the buildings and punch Malispite back to where he belonged.

 _"_ _Damn it! Think Malispite!"_ the brown bat said to himself _"_ _I need to get out of here long enough to use my attacks! But how!?"_

A blow hit him from the side. Malispite swerved after the hit and flew into the air, making careful note to dodge all of Dusknoir's attacks. This was harder to do when the attacks themselves were invisible, something which costed Malispite a couple of hits.

 _"_ _How the hell do I beat this kind of technique!? It is really invincible…? No! There has to be a way!"_

Still flying about and doing his best to dodge the attacks, the brown bat found himself despairing as he took more and more hits. He thought about his father, the man he needed to save yet was so out of reach. Akumori probably would be able to find a way to break this saturated sky… his son however, was pathetically trying to dodge the best he could.

But in that moment of despair gave Malispite a thought. Akumori was able to beat Dusknoir in the past… and probably this technique too. But how?

Malispite had no idea. So finally he just said "SCREW IT!" and flew towards Dusknoir with malice. Surprised, the ghost type didn't expect Malispite to wallop him with… just a normal punch.

That was it. It was just a punch.

Alone it might not have been that frightening but then Malispite quickly turned that one punch into a combination attack like he learned back in the dojo. Punch, right hook, punch, kick, spin Wing Attack, punch. Once again, compared to the destructive moves that pokémon usually possess this wouldn't seem like that big of a deal.

Until that is you realize that in chapter 45 Malispite easily punched a three foot steel door out of its locks, and has been steadily getting stronger since. Due to Dunsparce's training, the dark flyer had increased his physical prowess to absurd levels. A single serious punch from this fully Malispite was roughly five million Newton's of force.

You know, about the same force as a locomotive going 60mph.

Each locomotive punch hurt Dusknoir greatly even when they weren't infused with elemental attacks. Malispite finished his ten count combo with a two fisted overhead slam, sending Dusknoir into the ground.

"…hey! It worked!" Malispite grinned, realizing they he still had his speed and strength. He charged at Dusknoir, but the ghost type used Transparency to dodge his next assault, then tried to Fire Punch Malispite from the back, which did some damage.

Realizing Malispite was too strong, the ghost type paralyzed him to the ground with Thunder Wave and then unleashed a Shadow Zone attack on the bat. This time, it finally hit directly, ramming him with multiple giant sized Shadow balls all at once. The explosion was immense, and dealt huge damage to the brown bat.

Dusknoir crashed into the ground, breathing heavily. Malispite had taken more out of him than he expec-

"I just had a thought…" said the voice in the smoke. Malispite emerged from the crater. He had multiple bruises, multiple cuts and bleeding, but was still standing "How much EP does it take to keep running Phantom World Breaker?"

Dusknoir widened his eye. Malispite grinned.

"Oh… that much huh? So maybe if I stall…"

The ghost type flew into the air rapidly. It took Dusknoir a lot of energy to keep up Phantom World Breaker. He could keep up the move for another 20 minutes, but that was now not an option. Malispite had clearly proven himself strong and fast enough to stall out those twenty minutes, regain use of his moves… and then it would be checkmate for Dusknoir.

As the world's former greatest thief, Dusknoir knew how to plan accordingly. There was no possible way to defeat Malispite as he was now.

Therefore, the only option was to cancel Phantom World Breaker, quickly convert all that energy into himself, and fire off his _second_ signature move. As Malispite looked up in awe, the gray skies receded into Dusknoir's palm, where it coalesced into a smoky sphere. The ghost type then used the mouth on his belly to engulf the sphere, initiated his next move:

"Spirit Drive!"

In an instant Dusknoir's body expanded. Spikes contorted around his body, smoke flared up around his head, his stomach mouth became full of sinister teeth. He grew twice as tall in under a second, with a menacing appearance to match his form. Dark smoke appeared beside his fists, lighting up the night sky.

"Holy…" Malispite gaped in awe.

"This attack… gives me raw power!" Dusknoir was emitting so much EPressure that it became clearly visible. Even Malispite was getting a slight headache being in the general presence of him "My strength… my speed… my durability… all of it is raised one hundred fold!"

This form lasted one minute. However, one minute was all Dusknoir needed. He raised his arm "Shadow Punch!"

It took Dusknoir .0000001 seconds to reach Malispite from the sky. He used a Shadow Punch attack, backed up by the monstrous speed and strength of his terrifying form to smash the brown bat's head from above. The ground practically caved in just from the first contact of Dusknoir's fist- the entire city seemed to shake once the actual punch followed.

The buildings to next to them were actually blown away by the Shadow Punch, collapsing in on themselves just from the force of the shockwave. Dusknoir was surprised as how much damage he did to the surrounding area. Malispite must have felt a force far worse.

So why then, did a clawed hand block his fist?

Malispite, in Demon's Offence mode, had raised and grabbed Dusknoir's fist just before contact. He still stood in the middle of the ruins.

"No… way…!"

Back when Malispite fought Lucario, he had ended the battle with a single punch that nearly destroyed the castle. However, because that was what Malispite referred to as "a dick move", he actually _held back on that punch._

"Rest in peace, old timer."

Malispite gave Dusknoir the best punch he had, straight to his tooth filled abdomen. The clouds broke and the skies parted. The collapsed building collapsed even further. The air shook so much that the Rangers nearby lost radio signals for a split second. Dusknoir flew into the air helplessly, blood poured from his stomach. He crashed down after a while and transformed back to normal.

"…ow!" Malispite felt his right arm tenderly. He had put his all into that attack and now, his right arm was unusable "Crap that hurt!"

Dusknoir could not help but chuckle at his situation as he turned back to normal "Hoho… good, young one…"

"Yeah, that's right!" the brown bat acted tough "You don't mess with me, even if you're mind controlled!"

A pause.

"Wait… hoho? Good, young one?" frowned the bat.

"Oh dear, I've been caught… slip of the tongue, hoho~!" the ghost type said faintly.

"Hey, what!? You ain't brainwashed! What the hell man!?" the dark flyer was angry.

Suddenly, the sky lit up red. Malispite turned to the direction of the light, kilometers away. It was a giant flame the size of a tidal wave next to Altru Tower "What the…?"

"Malispite… I'll explain everything. But first, we need to… we need to get over there." Dusknoir pointed in the direction of the flame "We have to go before… before it's too late."

* * *

The fight had taken them back to the Altru Tower. Darkrai could only hope that Kairi and his sister were safe- because he couldn't control the flow of battle anymore. Neither could his former master, he suspected.

The two were at constant odds with each other. For each hit one did, the other hit them back. Fantastic techniques were thrown back and forth, with Substitute clones thrown into the mix, nightmare powers, and even plain martial arts.

They zoomed up the building as they fought each other, each punch was infused with their respective element. They traveled to the top, dodging each other and throwing their techniques until they reached the top of Altru, where the former shadow crystal lay in pieces.

Darkrai perched atop one of the walls while Escodia hopped up onto the ground floor. In an instant they collided again, breaking the top of the tower with a Dark Pulse Punch and Fire Punch respectively. The result broke off portions of the tower which sent them flying back off of it. Even in midair they continued their assault: the prince of darkness used a Dark Pulse from behind to home in towards his former master, who met his subsequent punch with a Psychic repulse.

They flipped positions in the air, then launched themselves at one another one more time. The shockwaves fired off from their blows could break someone's ears, to say nothing of the actual blows themselves. It was Escodia who finally got the upper hand, by destroying Darkrai's Substitutes and nailing him in the chest with a Searing Shot, which carried Darkrai back down to earth in the most painful manner.

The fire rabbit landed on the ground gently and Darkrai quickly pulled himself out. That entire brawl had taken about a minute tops.

Darkrai and Escodia stared at each other. Both fighters were badly hurt, but still fought regardless. A silence passed between them. Each pokémon was sizing the other up, seeing which one would make the first move. Eventually the fire rabbit opened his mouth "So-"

Darkrai immediately slammed his jaw with a Dark Pulse Punch which sent Escodia flying back a ways. The legend in training rushed towards the man hoping to finish him off, but paused for a brief instant when he heard a giant cracking sound. He homed in on the source and it was the Altru Tower flying upwards.

The entire Altru building, several stories high and who knows how many tons in weight… was being psychokinetically lifted by one tiny fire type. Both Darkrai and his spectators gaped. Escodia merely grinned and hurled the entire building at Darkrai.

The prince of darkness fired off several Shadow Balls at the building, which did nothing to impede its route. The fire rabbit zoomed back at Darkrai and punched him into the building to speed up his inevitable demise. Darkrai recovered from the blow and- still hurling towards the building- found footing and bounced off the rails of the falling tower, working his way into the inside where the evil fire type awaited him.

The building was still falling while Darkrai and his former master battled it out on the inside, bouncing off walls to both get good footing as the tower moved and to gain a better position to strike. The dark type and the fire type made their way to the opposite side of the building just as the thing collapsed on the ground with an earth shattering sound. Both combatant flew out:

"Apocalypse!" Darkrai summoned a gigantic black hand with eyes and closed it on Escodia, this time not being a mere Substitute. The nightmare attack sent out shockwaves of darkness when it closed around the fire rabbit, entrapping him in a nightmare. Just for good measure, Darkrai slammed the enclosed hand to the ground, making yet another crater in their battle.

The darkness lifted from the ground and the fire rabbit stood up. He was bloodied, beaten, and had just fought off a dangerous nightmare.

"Let's end this." smiled Escodia. He put two of his fingers to the side "V-Create."

A massive V shaped flame erupted from the fire rabbit hand. This was his ultimate attack, a fire type technique that could blast away entire skyscrapers upon contact. A signature move so powerful, it took only two tries to beat a class 4 into submission.

"Yeah. Let's end this shitty fight." Darkrai responded in turn by summoning darkness to his hand. This was not a Dark Pulse Punch, however. This was it. Escodia narrowed his eyes as the darkness turned grey and began flaming around Darkrai's hand.

 _"_ _Oh, so that's your idea of a signature move huh? It suits you."_

"VICTINI!" Darkrai rushed towards his former master, tears in his eyes and signature move at the ready. The fire rabbit yelled back and rushed towards him as well. The former legendary left a V shaped trail in his wake as his fist collided with Darkrai and utterly blasted him to oblivion.

The dark type was flung back into Altru Tower, where he sustained major damage. Blood pouring from where a spike hit him, Darkrai got back up and charged his attack again. Escodia still held the gigantic flame in his palms, with a disappointed look on his face.

"That's it?" he wondered "That's all you can do?"

"Shut up!" Darkrai cried "I will… I will…!"

 _"_ _Relax all muscles not needed when fighting. It saves energy, not having to waste it on tensing muscles."_

"I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Darkrai's attack was charged again and he rushed at Escodia with unparalleled force. The fire rabbit zoomed towards him. As the audience watched, their fists collided once again, and Darkrai was blow even further back.

His attack was too weak- V-create had utterly crushed his signature move and sent Darkrai flying back into the tower, breaking the steel and glass and out the other end, where he lay limp on the ground. Tears were in his eyes as he cursed his own fate and his lack of power "Why won't it work!? Why can't I beat him!? Why… why…!"

 _"_ _Not too bad. For a weakass wurmple I mean. Keep working on it, I'm sure you'll be moderate after a couple hours."_

 _"Hey screw you. My signature move is going to kick the ass out of your V-create! You'll be crying once I perfect it!"_

"Why…?"

Escodia, ostensibly just to show off, took his still raging V-create attack and hit Altru Tower with it. The force of a nuclear explosion hit the building and turned the whole thing into ash mere seconds after collision. A smile was on his face as the fire rabbit stepped through the charred ruins to meet his former apprentice.

"Darkrai!" shouted Cresselia from a distance.

The rest of the audience was in tears. Even Gardevoir had awoken, and she banged on Anarchaoss's shield with all her might to save Darkrai.

Escodia peered over the helpless dark type. He frowned "Well then. Let's bring you to near death, shall we?"

The fist came up, and a giant flaming V starting from the center of the legend's fist appeared in the sky. Dozens of meters high, it glowed with menace "Goodbye, Darkrai."

The fist came down and blew up the entire area with its supreme fire power. A crater hundreds of meters deep and wide was formed in the aftermath of the explosion, and everything in it was on fire that simply would not go out.

Yet, Darkrai stood.

Surprised, the legend formerly known as Victini stepped back, V-Create still in his hand. Darkrai had, at the last second, went from crying to dodging the blow.

"So you still had some fight left in you…"

The entire world stood still. Everyone awaited Darkrai's response. And finally, he spoke "I get it now. I finally get it."

He turned towards his master with a determined expression. The rage had all but vanished. The tears had dried, and the depression was lifted. All that remained on Darkrai's face was a calm expression, seemingly wiser than his years would indicate.

"Victini." said Darkrai, "This is it. This is where I surpass you."

He finally found the answer. The answer to his signature move, the answer to who he was and what he was doing, and the answer for what to do upon betrayal of his master. The answer was simple. Darkrai was going to defeat Victini, right here and right now. For the sake of his friends, and for the sake of himself, unless he defeated his master right now, he would never be able to step forward as a pokémon.

"Surpass me?" chuckled the legendary. The flames on his hand grew to even more intense heat. The orange and yellow flames turned bright red and orange, the temperature of them surpassing two thousand degrees Celsius- half the temperature of the sun's surface. Rocks melted in its presence, the ground turned to lava and the air became unstable.

This was it. This was Escodia's most power attack at maximum power. He had trained himself since being beaten by Reshiram and Zekrom, and this was the fruit of his hard work: the strongest fire attack in the world.

"You think you can beat me? Go ahead and try!" challenged the fire rabbit.

Darkrai stood still, despite being in the presence of overwhelming heat. Finally, he steeled himself.

"Bring it on."

 _"_ _If you want this so called 'ultimate attack' to succeed, you'll have to use Cataclysm. There's no other way; any other result would be mediocre. Also, you'd have to be in the right state of mind just to control this thing."_

Darkness was summoned at Darkrai's arm. It intensified, grew grey, and coalesced in the air around him. And then finally, finally after so much training the prince of darkness activated his attack. With a yell, he intensified the darkness in his body further around his arm. The sweeping waves of darkness surround his entire left side, formed a giant trail of mist where his shoulder should have been, then grey black and grey, glowing with pure power.

One more push was all it needed. Darkrai emitted a nightmarish shockwave from his body which propagated several kilometers in every direction. Windows cracked and smashed from the sheer force of dark power, the rangers who were on standby felt a headache despite the distance, and even Anarchaoss's shield started to crack at the edges.

Darkrai stood still. His entire right arm was surrounded by darkness, trailing upward like smoke a few meters. His fist seemed larger by comparison, some parts surrounded by hardened darkness. Escodia grinned in response.

"Victini."

"Darkrai."

The former legendary raised his fist horizontal and flew towards Darkrai. A V shaped trail of flames hotter than lava was left in his wake. As he sped towards the prince of darkness, the ground beneath him melted from being in the general vicinity of his fire. He charged at Darkrai with everything he had.

Darkrai raised his fist and dark energy poured out of his elbow like a rocket about to take off. The darkness intensifies and propelled the prince of darkness forward at incredible speeds. Darkrai lunged at his former master, breaking the ground as he ran ad leaving a single trail of white and grey energy behind him.

Time seemed to slow down for everyone watching as the master and pupil fists finally met.

Fire blew backward, Darkness blew everywhere, the ground erupted with fury, the sky rumbled in fear and the entire environment seemed to terraform according to the whims of these two mighty attacks. Heat approaching solar levels blew away the entire ground, while darkness started to literally dissolved everything around it.

They yelled at each other, using all that they had to try and win. The collision seemed endless, but it only lasted three seconds. At the last second, the energies collided in a violent explosion which blew up everything not already destroyed. The light was intense, but everyone looked at hard as they could to see the victor of this magnificent battle.

Victini flew backwards.

He had been hit by the ultimate darkness attack. The one he helped to perfect. It was actually a brilliant idea by Darkrai: If an opponent was injured but still had the will to fight, he would still fight. Therefore, though the dark type, why not just take that will too? After all, if there existed an attack which both inflicted great physical AND mental harm, wouldn't that technique be invincible?

The result was Darkrai's signature move. By carefully manipulating the darkness element as well as his own nightmare powers, he was able to create a blow that not only had enough power to blow up a skyscraper, but also infused the opponent with a perfect replica of Cataclysm- the ultimate nightmare attack.

As a result, anyone who got hit by it experienced great physical pain and became trapped in a nightmare. This was an attack that affected both the physical and mental, usable by a total of one pokémon. It was originally named something stupid, but Victini had managed to convince his pupil otherwise. Now, it had a more suitable name.

"Doomsday Eclipse." finished Darkrai, having finally overpowered his former master.

Doomsday Eclipse. The ultimate signature move, able to defeat anyone.

Escodia could not help but grin despite his grievous wounds. He fell to the ground, thoroughly and utterly defeated.

The rangers stood agape. Darkrai's friends had their jaws open so hard they might as well have been on the floor. The battle had finally ended and-

"Darkrai won!" shouted Kairi happily. She and Cresselia cheered, and were soon greeted by none other than Anarchaoss and the rest of their friends. The steel type let the shields down, letting Calestia back together.

"Take that!" Mercifond shouted at the steel type "The ritual failed! Darkrai is still alive!"

"Nope." said Anarchaoss. He was still frowning, still gazing at the fire type legend "The ritual… succeeded completely."

Before Mercifond could process these words, in came Dusknoir and Malispite, both injured.

"Hoho… so glad to see you all again…" said the tired ghost type "Anarchaoss…?"

"The battle just ended. I made sure these guys didn't interfere." said the steel type, unbelievably serious for some reason "It's over now. You can tell them the truth."

Calestia paused at these words. The truth?

Dusknoir began to speak "My dear friends… we are sorry for lying to you this entire time. None of us were ever under Blake, or the Shadow Crystal's control…"

* * *

Darkrai stood over his former master. He had won. Yet, he felt empty. Why did this fight happen? Why did Victini suddenly become so…

He paused when he saw Victini's tattoo's squirm around his body, then come off of him just like paint. The red symbols hung into the sky, where they formed a complex and activated their true function.

"Hey there Darkrai." it was Victini's voice coming from the symbols in the air "If you get this message then that means you beat me… good job. I'm proud of you."

This sent chills down Darkrai's spine. He didn't even have time to register what kind of compliment Victini gave him. All that he heard was something positive- something that Victini was very much against.

* * *

"It all began a while back, you see." said Dusknoir.

 _"…_ _I need to get back to Sinnoh, and the Hall of Origin." spoke Victini "Soon. I need to get a good brawl with Arceus."_

 _"Why would you even think about fighting that monster?" Ariados asked. Dunsparce stared. Victini sighed to himself. The fire rabbit spoke after a couple seconds_

 _"The truth is, I'm dying."_

 _Team Nova widened their eyes. Victini held up his hand, prompting them to not say anything while he continued._

 _"We victini… kind of know when we're about to die." he explained "I can feel it. My time is coming. So, even though I don't really follow any of that traditional stuff… I'm going to perform the Ritual of Eternal Flame."_

 _"I… I see…" Dusknoir stated, blinking a few times "But, why Arceus? Is it not tradition to…?"_

 _"Unfortunately, none of my children can really fight. And no offense to Darkrai, but he isn't enough, I don't think that he can do it." explained the fire rabbit "So yeah, it's a bit unorthodox, but at least I'll be fighting a class Five, so that should still be fun."_

 _"Huh…" Ariados looked down, "Victini I'm… I'm sorry."_

"That's the thing Victini was telling us earlier…!" Cresselia said "But wait, why would he try it on-"

"He lied." said Dusknoir simply "Absorbing another pokémon's life span? No. That isn't how it works. The Ritual of Eternal Flame is something more sacred…"

* * *

"Basically it started a long time ago as a religious practice." said the disembodied voice of Victini "Essentially the thinking went like this: if somebody died but thought that the current generation sucked, then they would come back as an angry ghost or whatever. They won't be at peace.

So anyway a long time ago, it was decided that, in order for a victini dying to gain peace, he would have to fight either a son or daughter, or one of his apprentices, and it was expected that they would be able to beat him. Thus preventing angry ghosts or whatever… I don't get our ancestors."

Darkrai stood there with a quivering lip.

"Anyway it's still practiced among my clan, minus the spiritual part of it. It's kind of a tradition nowadays than a sacred event. Anyway, I was going to fight Arceus for a while since it might have been fun… but… well, you came."

* * *

"Victini decided to fight Darkrai instead." said Ariados, "And that… is the reason behind this entire mission."

"Wait, then what was all that crap about trying to kill us then? Why fake being mind controlled?" Malispite argued.

"Easy." said Gallade's father, shifting his glasses up "To train you."

"We faked being mind controlled and evil to put you all in a situation where you would have to use your full powers." explained Gallade's mother, "To help all you cute legends in training get stronger."

"Everything went according to plan." said Dusknoir, "We had Arceus shut off the spatial system to give you a sense of urgency, helped Blake subtlety to help him pose a great threat… even Darkrai getting captured was all a part of the plan."

"What!?"

* * *

"Duh." laughed Victini "You know what I freaking hate? Mind control. So… I pulled some strings to get Blake to control you with the Golden Armor. AKA the most powerful form of mind control known to pokémon.

And you broke out of it. Congratulations, Darkrai, you are now pretty much immune to every form of brainwashing on the planet. Not only that, but since your mind is steeled your illusions will be much stronger."

"You… did that just to…" Darkrai was speechless at this revelation. Still, Victini had more to say.

"Of course, there was still no way you'd be able to beat Absolix. So… I came up with another plan for our last training session…"

* * *

"Essentially… Victini was too soft." Dusknoir said slowly "So… he did the unthinkable."

 _"_ _You know what's stupid about this ritual? You hold back." realized the fire rabbit. He was discussing 'The Plan' with his cohorts Team Nova "I mean… you're essentially fighting your loved ones you know? You're going to pull your punches even subtly no matter what."_

 _"Well, I mean, that's sort of how it goes." reasoned Ariados, "But surely you won't hold back that much? It'll still be good training for Darkrai, right?"_

 _"No way." said Victini immediately "I won't settle for half-assing this. He's… my stupid apprentice who wants to take on Absolix. He deserves more."_

 _Master Dunsparce stared._

 _"He has a point." said Dusknoir, "Unless you someone turn evil or something, you'll have to settle for just that."_

 _Victini held his head down, seemingly defeated. He thought long and hard about this. Suddenly, his ears perked up "Wait that's it! You're a genius! I'll turn myself evil!"_

 _"What? Have you become senile?" Ariados questioned. The fire rabbit continued to grin_

 _"No, no… the shadow crystal!" Victini announced, "I'll go with Darkrai to protect the shadow crystal."_

 _"Wait, you aren't a dark type. If you try doing that then-" Ariados paused in mid-sentence. Master Dunsparce and Dusknoir stared. Victini grinned and continued for her "-then since I'm not a dark type, the crystal will begin to affect my head. It will multiply the negative emotions inside me, until I cave in and turn into a villain."_

 _"That's crazy talk! You can't just-"_

 _"And then I'll know for sure I won't hold back when I face Darkrai… and as a bonus, he'll go all out on me too!" said the fire rabbit excitably "The Ritual of Eternal Flame… this will be the best one ever."_

 _"Victini-"_

 _"Actually that could work." said Dusknoir, "I can make some seals which will accentuate certain emotions, like pride, over the others, and bind them in the seal itself until you're ready to 'turn evil' as it were."_

 _"I'll make up something to make him fight me!" continued the fire rabbit._

 _"You cannot be serious in supporting this ludicrous plan!" the spider raged, genuinely worried, "Dunsparce, help me out!"_

 _Master Dunsparce stared. Ariados fling an Iron Barb at him for supporting this ridiculous plan but he dodged it. The fire rabbit set to calm Ariados down. Yes he would be evil, but he and Darkrai would get their last chance to train together. It would be the final lesson, which would mean the world to him._

 _"…What if he can't stop you?" asked Ariados "What if he falls and you actually kill him?"_

 _"He will stop me." said Victini without a shred of doubt, "I know he will."_

* * *

"… and that was the plan." said the seals in Victini's voice "Oh yeah and then I got Dusknoir to make these seals around my body, which can record messages. So now you know."

"Victini…!" Darkrai was afraid.

"Well… Darkrai. This is it." said the seals.

"Not it isn't!" screamed Darkrai. He zoomed to Victini's limp body and tried to wake him up.

"You were a good apprentice. Honestly in a few years you'll be stronger than I ever was. Your speed is top notch, and that signature move is killer… probably could beat mine in a fight."

"Stop praising me!" the tears had come back to Darkrai, but for a different reason "Don't you know the goddamn code!? You can't ever praise you disciple or they'll slack off! You can only praise me in… in…"

"And overall, the only regret I have in my long life is that I didn't meet you sooner. You were the best apprentice I could ask for." said Victini's recorded voice from the seal.

"No…" the dark type wept "No… don't go…"

The closest thing to a father in Darkrai's life was whittling away whatever flame he had left in him. And despite the child's shouting, it would be extinguished. Victini was already too weak to even speak, too injured to move and too unconscious to even think properly.

"Please…" said Darkrai in a soft voice. The silence around him was deafening.

"…Well. That's all I have to say. Kick Absolix's ass, Darkrai. He needs it.

… Goodbye, idiot apprentice." the seals vanished into the air.

Victini's pulse stopped and his heart stopped beating. Darkrai clutched his master and cried, begging him to come back. Victini was drifting from consciousness fast, he could already feel his soul being pulled towards the afterlife.

 _"_ _Idiot… you're giving me nightmares…"_ smirked Victini in his mind. Indeed the nightmares from touching Darkrai's body had come as usual and were haunting Victini in his final moments as a living being.

Somehow, though, they weren't so bad.


	7. VII: The Beginning

**\- Part Seven: The Beginning -**

* * *

The spatial communications network was restored minutes after Victini's death. Arceus was there to comfort Darkrai in his time of need, and had even sent Palkia to help clean up.

Kairi went back to her rangers and gave a detailed report of the events that transpired at Altru Tower. Contained within her report was the bravery of Calestia, Victini's so called "betrayal" and of course the destruction of the tower itself along with the Shadow Crystal. Almia was safe once again.

After seeing Darkrai fight, many of the Dim Sun grunts immediately surrendered. They were arrested for their crimes against pokémon, while Blake Hall and his Sinistrio went to an especially tight prison in another region.

Some of Pueltown was destroyed due to Malispite and Dusknoir fighting. They both apologized, and Calestia opted for a mini-mission to restore the damaged parts of Pueltown. They accomplished this objective within a week.

Cheers were heard for weeks for the success of Operation: Viktory. Calestia had saved Almia from a potential disaster and its citizens were grateful. Not everyone was cheering, though. Deoxys for one, finally worked up the courage to relay the bad news.

Mewtwo had abandoned them. He had gone to Kurades, to seek treatment for his emotional problems. Along with Gliscor, that made two of their members who defected to the side of Atrum Futurum. With Mewtwo, a class Four their forces had considerably grown and posed a danger to the world. Sadly Atrum Futurum lay in the dark; as a result no one knew where their base of operations was or even what Kurades was planning next.

Deoxys received comfort from the members of Calestia for losing her loved one. Darkrai had received gentle care for losing his brother. Within a week, Darkrai announced he would be taking Mewtwo back as well as Gliscor.

In secret, Deoxys also relayed Mewtwo's last cryptic message: "Myuu is alive, Giovanni has her." Although the Legendary Council was incredulous since Myuu was long dead, Arceus deemed the matter serious enough to be looked into. Giratina was the only one who felt a strange sense of dread.

Darkrai took over a week to get over Victini's death. At first he blamed himself for killing his own mentor, shutting himself off from the rest of the world. With some coaxing, he soon returned to his old self. Mostly.

The members of Calestia were not the same as they were when they first entered Almia. Although they were stronger, they were also different. They had completing their first mission as a team and proven to the Legendary Council their power. They had lost some members, who went their separate ways. They had seen death itself, and cruelty of the world.

They had become older. Wiser, some might say.

After the second week Arceus was ready to transport them back to Destiny City. But they refused to go back.

 _"_ _What?"_ asked Arceus through the channel.

"Mom… we've thought this through. Please listen." said Cresselia. She took a deep breath: "We'd like to stay in Almia until the end of the summer."

 _"_ _Stay in… why?"_ Arceus had figured that with so many painful memories in this country, staying there would not be the best option. However Cresselia explained their situation eloquently.

"Mom, throughout this entire mission, we of Calestia have experienced our own powerlessness. We want to get stronger. Team Nova is here, and they would be more than happy to train us. The Ranger Union has agreed to provide us with battle simulations to raise our strength. So on and so forth.

… Mom. I lost a friend, and Darkrai lost a brother. We don't want to lose anyone else. So please let us stay."

The white equine legendary pondered this. She spoke after a few seconds "Where is Darkrai? Aside from the first day he hasn't contacted me."

Cresselia gave a wry smile "He's busy training. He's isolated himself in the Chroma Ruins constantly practicing until he collapses."

 _"…_ _And how are the others?"_

"Gardevoir is um… training to use Fairy type moves." lied Cresselia. In reality and in secret, she was practicing using her light type attacks without going crazy. Results were already showing "She's also… forcing Darkrai to give her nightmares every few days so she can be immune to them one day.

Gallade and his parents have been mega evolution training him. Hopefully they can figure out Gallade's weird mega evolution."

* * *

"…It still won't work!" Gallade cried out. He had been trying to mega evolve using a galladite for the past week but nothing worked.

"Why doesn't it work!?" questioned Gallade's mother, "How come you can use a gardevoirite but not the mega stone of your species!? None of this makes any sense!"

"And that form is still foreign- I've never seen anything like it!" remarked Gallade's father "You gain the steel type when you transform!? You must be the only pokémon on the planet with three types at once!"

"Uh… yeah…" Gallade murmured, thinking of Gardevoir who was Psychic/Fairy/Light typed. Somehow.

"Maybe it has something to do with a unique biochemical reaction our son has?" suggested the mother.

"Or maybe Cataclyptic had his head up his own an*s when he wrote about it." suggested Gallade. A large anvil fell on him because GALLADE'S A JERK.

* * *

"- Mercifond is learning how to be The Chosen One from some unexpected help."

* * *

"Oh yeah! The Holy Grail analysis came back and the results are awesome!" Nema showed them a graph. Dr. Alakazam and his skitty daughter looked over the papers.

"Oh yes! This vill improve our research on the capabilities of your Chosen One necklace immensely!" said the delighted evil genius.

"Oh that's well and good." said Mercifond, who was covered head to toe in sensors and cables "By the way I CAN'T MOVE WITH ALL THIS CRAP ON ME!"

"Now you know how I feel…" muttered Lucario.

* * *

The swan continued: "Malispite is being trained by Dunsparce and Dusknoir again. Apparently their location is… The Pit." she shuddered, "We don't know where Deoxys goes, but she visits us every now and then. I think she's dealing with Mewtwo in her own way."

 _"_ _I see, so that's how it is…"_ Arceus noted _"…_ _As long as you feel okay staying in Almia, I'll allow it for the summer. I'll send some legendarys to watch over you just in case."_

"Thank you, mom."

 _"…"_ Arceus could not help but feel a bit choked up on her offspring's newly developed independence. They were growing up slowly but surely _"_ _Take care, and tell Darkrai to talk to me every once in a while."_

Arceus ceased the transmission. Cresselia smiled and went out of the room. She saw her boyfriend, Latios, greeting her as she came out.

"Are you going to stay here?" asked the blue dragon. She nodded yes. Latios came in close and hugged her. Unlike her, he had to be back with his mother very soon. That being said, he was still the Eon pokémon so Latios could visit her every other week.

"Hey… are you okay with, you know… Gliscor?" Latios had to ask.

Cresselia frowned. The entire reason Gliscor left was because Cresselia could not possibly love him the way he loved her. She snuggled up to Latios "I'll be okay. I… I'm just worried about him."

The couple floated in silence, unsure of what to say.

* * *

"You know, it figures that even though I was instrumental in defeating Blake Hall, I don't even get a mention in the paper." Zero crumpled up a newspaper and threw it away "I mean hello? I shut off the fricken Golden Armor!"

"Since when do you like attention?" Kairi had to wonder. She was practicing against a simulation of a Salamence while zero hung back and watched.

"When it suits me." the blonde man affirmed. A knock on the door and Trueman entered the room "Kairi! I'm leaving tomorrow so I thought-"

The little boy saw Zero in the room and froze. Most people would do that after witnessing the most feared human in the world, but Trueman had another reason- he knew Zero's secret.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Zero impatiently.

"That's Trueman. He's a friend." said Kairi, directing the child away from Zero. Trueman was heading out tomorrow and wanted to give Kairi a final farewell. Additionally, he gave her some advice: that Kairi should talk to Zero about his status as the White Knight. After exchanging farewells, Trueman exited the room.

"Why does Trueman sound so familiar?" Zero wondered to himself. Kairi captured the Salamence in one loop and the hologram disappeared. Cautiously, she turned to Zero.

"Hey… how did you shut off the golden armor anyway?"

Zero ignored her and stared into the abyss. Silence between the two humans.

* * *

The Chroma Ruins were now even more ruined than ever before. Darkrai had tried to contained the damage to the "arena" he had made during his fight with "Toyman" but accidents happened and as a result, the place was in shambles.

"Searing Shot!" he launched yet another blazing hot sun at a rock wall, which hit it and melted the rock with its heat "Not yet… Victini's was stronger…!"

"Darkrai?"

The pitch black pokémon turned around to see his childhood friend. Gardevoir hopped over some rocks and walked into the general vicinity. Darkrai noticed that the ends of her hair were noticeably yellow in color. Gardevoir had been dyeing it recently for whatever reason. The pitch black pokémon didn't really care, she looked like of cute with yellow tints on her green hair.

… wait what?

"Be careful. My sister isn't around so if you get a nightmare, it'll be bad." warned the dark type. Gardevoir nodded her head once and sat on a rock a couple meters away from Darkrai. The nightmare pokémon resumed training.

"So what brings you here?" asked Darkrai in between blows against an imaginary opponent.

"I just… wanted to check up on you. See if you were okay." smiled Gardevoir. Darkrai nodded and resumed shadow boxing. He had found solace in remembering what Victini had taught him, and resolve in that Victini had planned an entire siege and died just to make his apprentice stronger. The pitch black pokémon would not let their final lesson go to waste.

The psychic fairy watched Darkrai from a distance for a while before turning her attention to her yellow hair. That was the symbol of her contract with Absolix. One day…

She frowned, reminiscing about the event. What would happen once the light type finally came to collect her?

"…Darkrai." she asked softly "If… If somebody were to take me away…"

She couldn't finish the sentence due to its heavy weight. She turned back to face Darkrai and found him close, locking eyes with her in a dead serious manner.

"If Absolix lays a finger on you, I'll kick his ass so hard it'll end up in his mouth."

The girl blushed and laughed "That's disgusting!"

Darkrai grinned "Which is why he won't want to even try."

The two then found themselves staring at each other. Gardevoir found herself turning red as Darkrai's piercing blue eyes gazed upon her face. His lips were locked in a neutral expression yet held the same handsome expression of a good man. Darkrai's beautiful blue eyes held on her as if he was concerned, contrasting his smoky white hair which fluttered in the wind. His strong arms were mere inches away from Gardevoir's and she could nearly feel his warmth-

"Gardevoir?" asked Darkrai innocently. Gardevoir snapped out of it "I just asked you-"

"WHY WOULD I LIKE IT WHEN YOU STARE AT ME THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE!" blurted out the nervous girl.

Darkrai was confused.

"Uh, anyway…" he said again, "I was just asking you… is your hair longer than before?"

"Huh?"

"Your hair, it seems like it's longer." Darkrai pointed out "But that's impossible, right? Your species' hair is always pretty short, right?"

Gardevoir looked at her locks. Before her ends drooped down just below her head. Now, her twin hair spikes were touching her shoulders and the back of her head seemed more messy than usual.

"… I mean that can't be, right?"

* * *

Absolix had been in his room for two whole weeks now.

This worried the members of Neo-Genesis.

"D-Do you think he's dead?" questioned Yumi.

"No way!" Salamantra shouted "Absolix-sama would never die! Especially not in his own room!"

"BRDRDRDDRRRDDRR!" Giga pointed out.

"I doubt that." Mewthree sighed. It taken her almost two weeks, but her psychometry powers had improved immensely under the tutelage of Salamantra. Her detection speed and range were greatly above the average of most psychic pokémon.

"Should we break in?" asked Brillareby.

"I don't know if we can…" Inori examined Absolix's door- it was covered by an incredibly powerful seal. Maybe they could break it in about a day working together, but it almost seemed like Absolix wanted them out for some reason…

Just as they contemplated what to do next, the paper on the door began to dissolve "Hey! It's breaking! Absolix must be coming o-"

 ** _BOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!_**

Absolix's room exploded, taking out the central part of Cascade City with it. Luckily Brillareby put up a psychic shield and Inori warped them out of there before the explosion of light did any damage. When the smoke cleared, there stood Absolix, grinning like usual.

"Hahah…" he chuckled before collapsing. The members of Neo-Genesis ran to his aide, asking what was going on. Absolix answered them "I've been working on a new signature move to take down Arceus…"

Blood spilled from Absolix. He had external bleeding, internal bleeding, and even a new third type of bleeding undiscovered by medical science until now "It's almost done." he concluded.

"ABSOLIX-SAMA YOU'RE INJURED BEYOND REPAIR!" the fire lizard scolded.

"I think you scolded me just now, but I can't hear you from the blood loss I'm experiencing." said the light type wryly. He fainted.

 _"_ _Urg! He always pushes himself too far!"_

Mewthree scratched her head to get rid of the itch. The rest of the Neo-Genesis members were panicking.

"Somebody get medical supplies! Brillareby, use your healing moves!" Inori barked orders.

"Typical Absolix…" sighed Yumi.

"Urg! He always pushed himself too far!" Yami cried in annoyance. Mewthree blinked. Then, she asked "What can I do to help?"

"Try using your psychic powers to get rid of the pain… he'll be fine after a while." The ghost type Inori told her. Mewthree did so.

"Still…" Salamantra was suspicious "That seal on Absolix-sama's door was incredibly powerful, enough to contain a nuclear explosion-kun at least…"

Everyone raised their heads. What did Absolix say he was doing in there?

 _"_ _Soon, Arceus…"_ thought Absolix, grinning to himself _"_ _It's so close to completion… and once it does, you will be certain to finally… die."_

* * *

In the blackest void, where there was no light, sat a figure. Despite the lack of light, he already knew where everything was in the room. For he was the observer.

A makeshift chessboard lay in front of him. However, instead of chess pieces, it had pawns with names on the top of them.

With grace, the figure moved some of these pieces around: "Absolix", "Arceus", "Kurades", "Cresselia" and many other names were moved across the board to various positions. Then, he took a piece whose name was "Victini" and tossed it away. The board was updated.

The figure smiled.

Everything was going according to plan.


End file.
